Drucey on the PCT 2022

  Day 14     232-256.2 May 28 Today started with a lot of up hill and I was really feeling it in my legs and struggling to keep up with Rockhopper and Chipper. I think it was a combination of lack of food and the terrain. We were following a creek bed an kept losing the trail.  After a break we had a long water carry, the trail improved and I was moving better and enjoying the hiking again.  We found a a great shaded spot for a hot lunch of most of my remaining food and then a good siesta.  After a good rest we sleepily hit the trail. We we quickly woken by a big aggressive rattle snake which put Rockhopper into fast reverse. The snake didn’t want to back down but eventually we continue on trail with the snake watching from the bushes. Lots of adrenaline flowing.  As the afternoon continued we meet Hiker Brett and his wife Jen who provided trail magic in the form of Quesadillas, beer and soft drinks. Amazing! We had a great time talking and catching up...

  D ay 13 215-232 May 27 We started a little later today got away about six after a long night hike the evening before. The temperature started to heat up really early and we were heading for Whitewater Creek about 8 o’clock we arrived at the most perfect setting. Crystal clear cool Water flowing through the desert. We built a little dam and soaked in the cool water. After spending an amazing time cooling off completely and meeting up with some other hikers We filled up with water and carried on our way. After about 10 miles out 11 o’clock we found some shade and water on way to do the heat of the day.    We had a five hour siesta add some food and napped a little through that incredibly hot midday. We set off late in the afternoon and pushed out another six or 7 miles ending up at a beautiful campsite just above the creek. This sets us up for a long day tomorrow. Then we are in striking distance of re supply in Big Bear Lake by lunchtime the next day. We are making great...

  Day 12 197-215 26 May  Today we had the customary early start and finished the long descent down Mount San Jacinto. It was a very very long way down to the valley floor and we were glad to hit that flat again, or at least our needs were. At the bottom of the descent was a water source where we met some new hiking friends 02 from the Netherlands and Florian from Munich Germany. It was then a long try very hot walk across the sandy desert to the shade of the interstate underpass which has been turned into somewhat of a hiker oasis. We stocked up on water again and then had a nap on the Random old furniture under the highway. At this point Nitzi who is a hiker and trail angel offered us a lift back to her house for laundry and shower via In-N-Out Burger. This was an offer too good to refuse and we were treated too amazing hospitality and felt like we had it had a day off after only three hours off the trail. Nitzi was a fountain of knowledge and had hiked up and down the PCT an...

  Day 11     180-197 pct miles plus summit trail to Mt San Jasinto.   We started day 11 with a 4:30 AM wake up and 5 AM depart from camp to try at Summiting Mt    San Jacinto. We had miss calculated the distance to the summit and realized we had no chance to make it for sunrise but despite that we reached the top at seven. amazing second breakfast on the summit with one of the best views in Southern California. At over 10,000 feet it stands clear of all the mountains around and was an incredible start to the day. We had snow on the way up in small patches and managed to snowball ambush Karen. After a really long decent of Mt St Jasinto we joined the PCT And headed towards our campsite for the night. We took an amazing midday break at a clear freshwater Creek flowing from the mountain so we could soak in feet in Coldwater we built a dam to create a pool and had a fantastic rest in the middle of the day. We met up with Rob    who is about to leave t...

  Day 10 179 - 180 pct miles plus 2.5 back to trail     We woke up at the hotel after an amazing sleep in a real bed for the first time in two weeks.  We had to organize that the best possible breakfast we could do with the microwave only was going to be scrambled eggs and smashed avo on a bagel which worked perfectly. After we did and that our real breakfast was delivered and we ate that too.   First of all it was a great opportunity to catch up with loading the stories and photos onto the Blogg with Internet and then it was into    for some laundry and lunch.  Our host at the hotel was Rodge who was originally from Mumbai and somehow at finding self in Idyllwild Southern California what an amazing friendly guy he looked after us and took care of our backpacks while we did all our stuff in town. The laundry is usually at through hiker gathering place and we met up with Tiffany who had left the southern terminus on the same day as rock hopper...

  Day 9 158.4 - 179.   Wow where to begin with day nine. This was the biggest and most incredible day of the hike so far. We all had a great nights sleep and we’re up and hiking at 5:30 AM. The hiking was incredible beautiful sunrise over some really big mountains to the east. Then progressively through the morning the mountains became steeper and more rugged as we gained elevation and kept heading up up up through 7 1/2 thousand feet. Eventually after about 8 1/2 miles we got to our first water stop of the day. The only problem with this water stop was that the spring was a long way downhill off the trail so we decided to have a nap first and then fill up with water. So after some food and nap in the sun we left our backpacks at the trail and hiked down to collect water. When Karen arrived at the water it was guarded by a rattlesnake and she had to retreat very quickly. Rock hopper made a lot of noise with his trekking poles and scared the snake away so we could fill up with ...

  Day 8 mile 137- 158.4 Wow what an amazing day. It started waking up very early and being completely soaked with condensation after the weather changed in the night. We just set off at about 5:15 in the morning wrapped up in all Our warm gear, heading for a hiker oasis called Mary’s place which had water and shade. The temperature soon went up when the sun came over the mountains and we were shedding layers really quickly and arrived to dry out sleeping bags in the sun and get more water from the tank. The next mission was another 6 miles to the Paradise Valley Café for allegedly the best burger on trail and it didn’t disappoint. We walked through the heat of the day to get there and were pretty exhausted but very excited about eating this famous meal. Staff were amazing I haven’t been called” baby “ like that for a long time. We all got massive burgers and Big salad to share. After devouring our burgers we sat in food coma mode unable to make intelligent conversation. It was a bi...

  Day 7 112-137  Day seven started with a very big uphill section to get us to our first water at a very interesting place called believe it or not Mike’s place. This was a very kind person who opened up their property to hikers to provide shade and water. Although Mike wasn’t in residence we certainly enjoyed having a place to    Rest in the heat of the day. His property was strewn with old cars interesting bits of equipment and weird junk of all kinds. I learned a valuable  lesson this morning about eating more for breakfast and was very hungry all morning so will not be making that mistake again.  Today again turned into a long walking day as we needed to get to Water to camp and had to push on further than perhaps we would have. We got to the spring where there was meant to be water but it was all dried up and after bushwhacking up and down we managed to squeeze 3 L of very swampy water out of a muddy puddle at the bottom of the valley. This led to havi...

  Day 6 Mile 97 to Mile 112 We packed up quickly as rock hopper and I were very excited to get down to the road and into a resupply at Montezuma Valley market. We were meeting Karen from Canada and we’re going to take the shuttle in altogether. When we arrived at the campsite we could only see one tent so assumed this with Karen and I believe woke up some random other hiker who wasn’t too impressed. We were also joined by Conner who had an overuse injury on his knee was going to have to leave the trail for a week or so to rest up. He came into the shuttle with us to the valley market with us too And would stay the night. Just after nine Kim a.k.a. wonder woman came and picked us up. The market is much much smaller than you would expect but still packed with every kind of like a food you could imagine plus lots of gear rucksacks hiking poles etc. we were completely spoiled for choice. It is the perfect Resupply for hikers. We all got to have a hot shower and do laundry.   ...