[pct-l] Water in Sections A-C

[Scott Williams]

Hey Mark and anyone else hiking this time of year in the deserts, this is
off your topic but worth sharing with you in case you're a forager,

I finished my last 300 miles in the desert in 2010, completing the trail at
the Saufley's in mid-Oct.  The deserts were beautiful in fall and there was
a lot of ripe fruit, so I thought I'd give you a heads up.  The trail south
of Big Bear was littered with millions of pine nuts from the pinyon pines
that grow at that elevation.  If I'd had a rake, I could have gathered
bushels of them.  They are long nuts, much bigger than you buy in a store,
but delicious.  They have a pretty hard shell.  Also the wild plums are
ripe, but they vary greatly from tree to tree.  Some are really good and
others, only bland.  About the size of cherries, if you get them just
right, yellow to pink, they're delicious.  Too ripe and they're blah, too
unripe and there's no sweetness.  Just keep sampling.  The tree is scrubby,
but has a plum shaped leaf.

Best of all were the holly leaved cherries which the bears love.  They go
along the trails and eat everything they can reach easily and you get to
pick the ones that are higher up.  They have a huge pit, but when you get
them at there best, the skin and the small amount of flesh is sweet and
delicious.  Sample them at different stages of ripeness which you can tell
by the depth of color.  The leaf looks very much like holly and the fruit
like a large cherry.

The cactus fruits are also ripe, but you need gloves and a knife to handle
them safely, so I didn't partake.

If you google, pinyon pine, wild plum or holly leaved cherry, you'll come
up with loads of pictures to help identify any of these.

I love eating my way across a landscape, and the abundance of food in the
desert in autumn really surprised me and made for a fun walk.

Shroomer




On Mon,

On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 11:31 AM, Markperschel at juno.com <
Markperschel at juno.com> wrote:

> I am on my way to Big Bear Lake to finish 266 miles I missed this Spring
> when I Started May 13th. Does anyone know the conditions of the water
> caches in sections A-C? And is there any water on the trail?
>
> Thanks for all your help this Summer. What and amazing adventure!
>
> Also I am volunteering to help with this years video. I have collected 250
> emails of PCTers and will solicit photos with guidance maybe from previous
> years makers.
>
> Mark Trail. Marktrail2011 at gmail.com
>
>
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID
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