Dan Woods' 2010 PCT Hike - Report 1

On Sunday, May 24, Dan called me from his home and announced he was ready to start. We both spent the remainder of Sunday and much of Monday preparing and packing. Monday night I drove down to Dan’s sister Tara’s in the LA area and met him there. We left Tara’s for the Lake Moreno County Park Campground near Campo about 10:00PM and Arrived about 2:00 AM. We set up and slept until 8:00 Tuesday morning.

I took Dan to the border and he started walking at about 9:30. By 7:00 that evening Dan had covered the 30 miles to the Kitchen Creek road crossing where I picked him up and took him up the road a mile or so to the Cibbet’s Flat campground.

Wednesday I met him at the Desert View Picnic Area at Mount Laguna and again at the Desert View Observation Deck 5 trail miles farther. After the second meeting I went across the street to the Laguna Campground, picked a spot, set up my tent, took a $1.75 shower then went north to the Sunrise Trailhead near mile 60 where I met Dan at about 7:00.

Thursday morning I took him back to the trail and then drove through the town of Julian and down to “Scissors Crossing” which is the junction of Highway s 78 and San Diego county S2 (trail mile 77). As I drove up a hiker, Robert, from Indio Hills near Palm Springs, was crossing the road to start up the trail to the north. I called to him and we had a nice conversation. He was hiking from Laguna to Barrel Spring (mile 43 to 90) over a period of a few days and was to be picked up by his wife the next morning at the spring

Not long after he left a lady attorney from Los Angeles, Ling, came along. She had left the border Monday and was making good time. We had a nice conversation before she started up the trail. Dan came in at 2:30 complaining of knee pain. After resting and loading up with equipment and supplies he left at 4:00 to go to mile 90 or thereabouts.

I drove north on S2 to Highway 79 with a short side trip to Barrel Springs which is on san Diego County Highway S22 to check it out. I took 79 north to Oak Grove where I spent the night in the Forrest Service campground there.

Friday morning I drove back to Barrel Springs, arriving about 10:00. As I drove up Ying was just preparing to cross S22 to head north. She came over and had a brief conversation. She had experienced some rain during the night which I had also.

I parked and started waiting for Dan whom I expected at between noon and 1:00 (he had sent me a text message about 8:30 telling me he was on the trail). At about 11:00 Robert showed up. His wife had walked in a mile or so and carried his pack to the trailhead. That is much better service than Dan gets. We all talked for about ½ hour before they left for home.
Dan came about 1:00 with knee complaints. After talking it over he decided he did not want to walk on it any more then. We loaded up and drove home via Oak Grove) to get my tent and stuff), Temecula, Hemet, Beaumont, I-10 to 62 and 62 to my place. We went through Hemet because the Memorial Day traffic on I-15 was already bad and trying to continue to the 60 freeway would probably have been a disaster. We got to 29 Palms about 7:00 and began 2 days of R&R with loots of showers, naps and movies. We watched Avatar on pay-per-view. I had expected it to he an over-hyped and typically marginal modern movie so I was pleased to find it was very good. We both agreed that if it comes around again in 3-D we will see it on the big screen.

On Monday morning Dan felt his knee was well enough to proceed so we went back to Barrel Springs via Borrego Springs. We arrived at 2:00 PM and Dan set out with the objective of going to Lost Valley Road which was 22 miles away. I met him at the first and second crossings of Highway 79 near Warner Springs and picked him up at Lost Valley Road. We drove back to Oak Grove and used a do it yourself rain check to make up for the Friday stay we had paid for and not used.

Tuesday morning we got up at 8:00. Dan started walking at about 9:30. His objective was Highway 74, about 32 miles away where we were to meet. I drove back to oak Grove and made tea and breakfast and lolled around until 11:00 or so when I started towards our meeting point. I stopped at the store in the town of Anza and got some yogurt then decided to see if I could find the Anza water cache which is at about trail mile 143 in the boonies to the east of town. Last year I made a small effort to find it and did not even get close. This year I had better luck. After consulting my 2 most detailed maps which both showed different but similar plats I drove to it with only one miss of a mile or two. It helped that I had hiked there in 2005 and consequently knew what the area looked like in general although it looked quite a bit different from the road than the trail.

Dan came at 4:45 with bad knee pain. After a rest he started out for Highway 74 (mile 151). I drove over and waited. He came about 8:00 and announced he was ready to call the hike. This was a good decision in my view as his knee seemed to be getting steadily worse.