PCT 2023 - Day 27 - Echoooo

The one with the rainbow bridge, a spillway surprise, and a snake pit!

📍 Location: Hot springs to mm326.4

🏔️ Elevation: 3573ft
🥾 I actually walked: 19.2 miles
💰 Money: No money spent
⛑️ Health: Blister on my right heal after walking a long day in the heat.

☀️ Weather: Too hot.

🍲 Food: Breakfast bar, snacks, orange, pasta with chicken for lunch, then noodles with bacon for dinner.

💤 Sleep: I slept ok, but DinkyDi’s tent collapsed on her so she had a pants night sleep.

😃 People update: The dog, Sandy has gone to Joshua Tree Inn for a day of rest. We have lost Goblin I’m afraid as he is just not well.

THE LONG WINDED VERSION:-

💤 6:30 am, I had a rather good sleep last night in the tent at the hot springs. I quite liked the drums in the background. Both doors of my tent were open and apart from a white dog barking at me and scaring me to death it was all good. Dinky Di’s tent collapsed on her so she didn’t sleep brilliantly. The pegs don’t hold well in this sand (which is why I use rocks rather than pegs). She was still holding up her tent with one hand at 5.30am today!! Bless

💦 This hot springs place is weird naked bodies are everywhere, even at 6:30 in the morning. There was one woman sitting on the trail in a pink onesie. I said good morning and asked if she was ok, she looked very blank and didn’t really acknowledge me at all. I’m not sure what to make of it all. 😂

🌈 730am - The trail is lovely today and we have a nice gentle, cool breeze. It’s easy going and the pace is quite fast. I have my stride on and I’m feeling good. We soon spot the famous “Rainbow bridge” - this is going to be fun! The rainbow bridge is quite long and arches like a rainbow, but also has multiple colours on the edges. I’m with DinkyDi so we do a rainbow dance on the rainbow bridge (all for YouTube of course!)

🗣️ 8.53am - We are chatting and then we both spot the Mojave River Forks Dam ahead of us. There was a comment on the app to say that one lady had 15 mins of fun talking to herself here. Apparently the echo is something surreal. We’ve timed it right as the sun has cast a huge shadow against the right hand side of the dam, so we dump our packs and have some fun before making a brew. DinkyDi is the first to go. She takes a deep breath..,, “cooooooo weeeeee”. She shouts. The echo is bounced back multiple times and we laugh! Then the laugh is bounced back which made us laugh even more. It was such good fun, I felt like a child again. 10 mins later we are making a coffee. Two south bound hikers are now approaching and Di can’t wait to show them the echo. She gives clear instructions and the German couple spend a few minutes shouting into the spillway. What fun! They then gave us some advice about the next section of the trail “look out for the red bandana, when you do the river crossing”. We reciprocated, look out for the naked old men, at hot springs! 😂

💦 1025am - It took us a while to figure out where to cross the Derp Creek River but eventually we just went for it. We didn’t see the red bandanna until we were half way across but it was not too late. The water was over my knees and the current was strong. It was actually quite nice to cross and cooled me down for a while. As we exited the river we both could hear the distinct sound of a rattlesnake. Actually, it sounded like more then one. We hurriedly dried our feet and we’re just about to set off when there was a commotion the other side of the river. We could hear a familiar voice shouting “No, Sandy, it’s this way”. The man with the dog was here. We knew Sandy didn’t like deep water and I knew DinkyDi would want to help. Plus, there was a rattlesnake or possibly two still making a hell of a rattle!

🐍 Di shouted at the man to take off Sandy’s backpack. This time he obeyed and did as instructed. The crossed the river with Di’s guidance. “Do you have a dogs lead!” Asks Di “there is a rattlesnake ahead”. The guy starts to explain that Sandy just ignores snakes, but also knows that Di won’t let this go. He puts Sandy on the lead and we all head up the trail together. Where is that snake? We can hear it and it’s very loud. I on the bank is and unusual shaped box. Di saw a man doing something with the box a while ago and didn’t think anything of it. As we walked by we realised it was a snake pit! God knows how many snakes were in there but it sounded like a big gas leak! I didn’t take photos or videos, I just walked very fast!

☀️ 1230pm - I can’t go on. The man and the dog got a ride into town and are taking a few days off (phew!). This heat is killing me and I need to stop. We find an shady area in the trees with a little stream. It’s effect for a siesta! People pass us over the next few hours. We caught up with Jim (the guy who lost his shoes) Jesse and the two German nurses. Awesome break. It’s now 2:30pm and we’re on our way again.

💦 315pm - We catch up with the German couple (Hannah & ??). Hannah is standing in the stream with just her bra. Her sun hoodie is in the stream. What a great idea to get cool! Both DinkyDi and I take our sun hoodies off and soak them in the cold water spring. It was a bit of a shock putting them back on again but boy did it feel good!

🤕 420pm - Another river crossing but this time I wasn’t so lucky. I fell in as I slipped on a rock. It was actually quite cool and refreshing although my feet were rather squelchy.

🌳 1818 after a hot day walking through the blazing heat, I’m now in a lush green forest, Dinky Di tells me it smells divine, though I have no sense of smell. The Sun is going down and it’s incredibly pretty. I’m exhausted but we still have 4 miles to go to the chosen destination of Silverwood Lake Picnic area.

🌅 19:57 Wow! We created a peak and Silverwood Lake is presented to us . It’s absolutely stunning and we all stop in our tracks to take in the beauty. The setting sun is shining on the mountain tops and makes the lake glow. I’m very tired but we have half a mile left to go before we get to camp. I’m on my own Jesse and Dinky Di have gone ahead. I’m quite happy about that. I’m just walking at my own pace into camp and can see them both in the distance as we trek around the lake. This section reminds me of Loch Lomond on the West Highland Way.

🏕️ 20.11hrs - We finally made it to camp. We have picnic tables and put toilets (a real treat). I’m past hunger but I force myself to eat noodles. Some fishermen gave us a few beers and a huge packet of Doritos to munch on. How lovely was that?

⛺️ I tried pitching my tent but the ground is too hard for the pegs, so we all decide to cowboy camp. Jesse is cowboy camping on top of one of the concrete picnic tables (I’d be worried that I’d fall off!). DinkyDi is cowboy camping underneath a picnic table. I’ve just set up on a flat bit of ground out of the way of everyone else. I look at the stars and then at the lake. This is so beautiful. I’m so lucky to be here.

Night night. Thanks for listening to my rambles.Read more