Pacific Crest Trail : Warner Springs to Idyllwild

Miles this section : 56
Miles completed : 166

The trail winding its way through the desert.

Warner Springs doesn't have much in the way of houses, but it caters for my needs pretty well - there's a community resource centre where I camp, wash my clothes and myself, in both cases a bucket is involved.  There's a store where I buy dubious sausage, and best of all the local golf course lets hikers in and provides me with beer, burger and pizza over the course of my stay, plus some fine pancakes on the morning of my departure.  I walk out through pleasant wooded valleys, seems the town is something of an oasis amidst the desert.

A welcome water cache.

But before long I'm back on sand, the heat sufficient to melt the chocolate I removed from my bounce box in town (yes, this time I've been organised, boxes of food are following me through the US post system).  It's evocative country for sure, I half expect John Wayne to ride around the corner leading a posse, or maybe to see Captain Kirk battling a rubber skinned alien atop one of the boulders that litter the landscape here.  Instead I just meet more hikers, mainly hanging around the water sources, which remain few and far between.  It's nice to get back into the wilderness, camp at Warner Springs was a bit of a scrum, out here I can get some peace and quiet at night - generally high up, the gradual climb of the trail getting me up to nearly six thousand feet at one point.

Burnt forest.

No big problems so far, probably helps that I'm not carrying much food, this being just a four day section, in fact it turns out I have too much, on the morning of day three a short detour takes me to the Paradise Cafe for more pancakes, after which I'm not hungry for a while.  Still ready for my dinner that evening, I cook up a two bean chilli which is almost real food, rather tasty I must say though it does take an hour to cook.

Shortly into day four and I walk into a section that has recently opened following a long closure after a fire in 2013, the blackened husks of trees bearing witness to the devastation.  A few miles of trail remain shut so I divert around, including a few miles of road walking - American hikers gravely warn me that this will be very dangerous, and I really should hitch-hike instead.  Somehow I survive, then a surprisingly steep bit of trail takes me into Idyllwild, a charming mountain resort where I have a room booked, turns out to be a little log cabin just for me, such luxury.

The perilous road walk to Idyllwild.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.