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[pct-l] Memories from the '82 PCT

I was looking through my journal today and found an entry I thought you all
might enjoy.  My companions on our 1982 thruhike were my two best friends,
Harry Carson and Ray Clark.

"4/23/82

Yesterday was quite the day!  We left our camp yesterday morning (we had
lost the PCT somewhere near Deer Springs Park, so headed straight downhill
through hip-deep snow on a girl scout trail to a valley of private homes
where we camped) and headed up Black Mt. Road to a saddle.  There we found
the old PCT trail and followed it ("Hurley Flats - 4 miles"), thinking we'd
make it to Cabazon by lunch.  We stopped and snapped a joke photo near a
sign that said "AFTER THIS POINT TRAIL IS DIFFICULT TO FOLLOW"...

(Editor's note:  I am looking at the slide in question as I write this:  it
shows Ray and I standing on the snow on different sides of the sign and
pointing like Christopher Columbus, but in different directions.  HA, HA,
HA.  Well, we were sure cocky after two weeks on the trail, weren't we?  Bet
you can't guess what happened next...)

"Sure enough, we lost the ducks in a burned-off area where nasty thornbushes
grew head-high.  We searched and searched and finally headed down the creek
cross-country, then up the neighboring ridge -- in the wrong direction, it
turned out.  Finally, after 3 hours of crashing around we reached the
pinnacle of the ridge, hoping to go straight downhill -- it was a chasm!  No
way we could go downhill there.  So we headed across the creek back over to
our point (almost) of departure and headed down THAT ridge with the hope of
working our way cross-country to Hurley Flats.  Down there we stumbled back
upon the ducks -- the long-lost PCT!  We laughed through our sweat and
tattered, bleeding bodies and headed down...finally arriving there at 3pm --
all in all, we lost 4 hours.  We were sitting in the shade of a tree,
looking for ticks, pulling thorns out of our legs (right through Levi's!!)
when up come Byron and Jim from LA.  We had met them at Burnt Rancheria and
no one we'd met since had seen or heard of them.  They had spent two days up
on Marion Peak of the San Jacintos climbing Mt. Jacinto, etc."

"So we headed down the hill to Cabazon, arriving about dusk at the outskirts
where a kindly gent yelled at us from his yard:  "Want a Coke?"  "How about
a beer?"  yelled back Jim.  "Sure!"  We sat (the five of us) and drank two
brews each, talked to Ollie Ellingson and ate some of his fresh-picked
strawberries (his wife picked them for us)!  Talk about hospitality!  His
ranch is called "BS Ranch".  We sat and unwound for 1/2 hour w/ him and
drank his weekend supply of beer and went to the campground.  Pizza and two
pitchers of brew (GOOD pizza) and then back to the campground, where they
had planted new grass and were sprinkling non-stop on all but 10 sq. ft., w/
a half-rack of brew and a bottle of Red Lady wine for Byron and Jim.  Sat
around, drank, bullsh-----, etc. until bed.  Got sprinkled during the night."

"Impressions of our "Lost Day":  my first rattlesnake -- a little foot long
one that struch at my ice-axe when I poked at it.  Ray says a littler one
slithered between my legs later down the trail!  As we were walking down to
Cabazon from Hurley Flats we walked over a small rise to unexpectedly find a
baseball game in progress out in the middle of nowhere.  The only
respectable looking guy there came up in a hurry and directed us off.  We
think it was a reform-type school.  What a day!"

(Editor's note:  Hey, anyone by chance know Ollie Ellingson?  I know it is a
real long shot, but if anyone does could you send me his address so I could
send him and his wife another thank-you card?)


Well, back to reading my journal!  Take care, everyone...

Kelly

Kelly Flowers
kkflower@students.wisc.edu

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