[pct-l] My 20 mile day

[msaenz at mve-architects.com (Mike Saenz)]

I just got a small taste of what you crazy thru-hikers do...

Made it through the Cedar Fire burn area from Mt Laguna to the Fargas monument, just east of Cuyamaca, yesterday. 20 miles in 9 hours (including breaks). We kept a steady pace of 3 mph (moving average).

My legs are sore...

The original plan was to do the extra 10 miles and make it to Scissors Crossing, but more rational heads prevailed. Good thing, too. I'd have hated every step past mile 21. As it turned out, we had a great day on The Trail.

We started on the trail at Burn Ranchiera at 8am. It was bright blue and cold as we made our way through the frozen mud and snow of the campground. We were on the PCT for all of 15 minutes before the jackets came off. It stayed cool and breezy all day.
We didn't get to the burn perimeter until about 6 miles into the day. The trees and snow patches were nice to hike through. the trail turns to ash about the time you reach the desert view (whoa! What a view!) through the canyon next to Fosters Point. We were lucky in that the snow patches broke up the monotony of the blackened mountainsides. The blue sky also helped keep us cheerful as we hiked through the destruction left by the fire. It's truly a despairing sight. But just as the smell starts to get annoying, the trail turns out of the burn perimeter, as it ducks in and out of the perimeter's edge. Also, the moist ground kept the ash dust down. We got through the worst of it at Pioneer Mail and climbed up and northeast on the old roadway. Seeing the burn area, the desert below and the ruins of the old concrete guardrail among the tumbled boulders reminded me of Frodo and Sam making their way into Mordor.
>From then on, we were hiking through the `02 burn area, which, at least, has some grasses growing and the burned bushes are sun bleached white, instead of the moonscape of the Cedar burn. As we made our way toward Lucky 5, we saw mountain lion tracks in the snow! And later on, deer tracks on the trail. Hard to imaging much wildlife in that area.
Met up with Justin Cramer a few miles north of Lucky 5, after a spectacular error in landmark coordination: Justin agreed to meet up with us at Lucky 5 as we made our way north. I placed Lucky 5 about 3 or 4 miles south of it's actual location. We planned on making it to Luck 5 at noon, but we didn't get to Pioneer Mail until 11:30. But Justin (and his trail dog, Brittany) patiently waited for us and then began hiking north to meet us. So he was able to join us for about 6 or 7 miles, leaving us where he parked his truck at Lucky 5. Thanks for he company, Justin!
After that, a cold front moved in and a cold wind kicked up. Making the last 3 miles to where we parked one of our trucks was a cold and tired hike.

Water Report:
The drinking fountain at Mt Laguna is turned off.
The horse trough at Pioneer mail was full.
There was about 4 gallons at Lucky 5 water drop.
A fair coverage of snow patches between Mt Laguna and Lucky 5.
No flowing water at the bottom of any ravines.
Melting snow patches create small rivulets on the trail.

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McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners, Inc.
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