[pct-l] sections A/B

[JohnDRandall at aol.com (JohnDRandall@xxxxxxx)]

I had a chance to do section A from I-8 to the first scheduled water drop 
north of Garnet Mt, then B to Idyllwild 4/19-5/1.? Weird getting dropped off 
by the 'hound driver at 3:00am at Kitchen Springs Rd after 48 hours from 
Birmingham.?? I must have been too early for the AZDPCTKO water drops and 
with only 1 qt to go to Rodriquez Canyon and unknown beyond, got three 
hitches to Warner Springs.?? Two days there and the snow was gone, but it was 
still cold and WINDY.

Section B from highway 74 to the pink motel should be called The Serpent's 
Tail.?? If you haven't hiked it, you get more actual crest hiking than the 
High Sierra.?? In fact, it's like someone from the AT designed the route 
(dude, let's just go over the top of this thing).?? Why the Serpent's Tail??? 
The range is shaped in a rough J, with each knob or crest higher than the 
next.?? Every saddle is followed by an even higher climb.?? There are no 
attempts to sanitize the trail by carving out places to camp.

Special thanks to Bills Ranch House (wherever Bill is) for the water caches 
at highway 74 and at Fobes Saddle.? Without it, the average hiker (not doing 
the thru-speeds of 20+/mpd) wouldn't have much chance to complete the section 
without steep off-trail descents to water.

Ran into some very interesting snow on the north side of Red Tahquitz.?? The 
trail simply disappeared into a fairly thick forest, sidehill.?? After a 
couple of hours of cotton-mouth packing through the forest, my soaked New 
Balances found the trail again near the "slide" to Idyllwild

Next year it's on to Donna's after sections C and D.

john randall
birmingham, AL