Tag: California Section B

Sunday, May 4, 2026. Cold, cloudy, damp, very windy. 

Up at  5:30. On trail at 6:20.

We have 8.8 miles to get to Paradise Valley Cafe (PVC) today. This is a famous landmark 0.8 miles off the PCT. It is a restaurant in the middle of nowhere at the intersection of the only 2 major roads in a large area. Super hiker-friendly and the best place to get a ride into Idyllwild. They also accept mail packages for hikers. 

Rough uphill climb with high wind. Sweating and cold is not a good mix. We passed the 150-mile marker at 8:15.

We reached PVC at 9:15 after an 0.8-mile road walk down Highway 74. There were about 15 hikers here. More arrived over the next 2 hours. 

We had an awesome breakfast at PVC. My breakfast burrito was the size of a football!

I contacted Grumpy, a famous local trail angel, about a ride to town. It turned out he was just arriving at PVC for lunch! Perfect timing. Grumpy drove 4 of us to Idyllwild at 11:30. 

Brad and I checked in at the Idyllwild Inn and our room was almost ready now instead of at 4:00. Our good luck continued. We dropped our packs and wandered around town for a bit until the hotel texted that the room was ready.

Our hotel is in the heart of downtown within 2 blocks of everything. Some folks are staying almost 2 miles out of town. Glad I booked this place 3 weeks ago.

Side note…there is very bad weather rolling in tonight. Rain, wind, and lows near freezing on the mountain with possible snow up there. Everyone is changing their plans and getting off trail. Even those who hiked on from PVC this morning changed their minds and sought shelter in town. We are at almost 6000 feet and will be climbing to 10000 feet over the next 2-3 days. Huge weather changes at those altitudes. 

I unpacked, showered, got laundry going, and found good beer and pizza right across the street.

Just chilled the rest of the day.  Planning on doing town chores tomorrow. My package from home arrived with my lightweight camp shoes. I will send my heavy camp shoes home tomorrow to save weight. 

Took a nice nap, talked to my mom and to Pit Crew. Mom was worried since I had not posted blogs in 3 days. I explained about the lack of cell service. 

I headed to dinner with Brad around 7:30. We connected with a large crowd including Hell Yeah, Brian, Margarita, TJ, Banquet, Chinchilla, and 5 others.

Cool side note…Banquet is a young aerospace engineer who lives and works above Baltimore. She went to school at WVU where she got introduced to hiking. We had a good talk about hiking spots in WV and MD.

After dinner, we walked to a pub that I found earlier today and listened to an awesome British duo on guitar and upright bass.

Paul Hooper, you would love these guys! Amazing talent.

I called it an early night and went back to the cabin about 9:00 and watched some videos before falling asleep. 

Technical Notes:

• Fig bar 200
• Breakfast Burrito 650
• Personal pizza 800
• Not counting anymore town calories 
• Propel x 0
• Water liters: .5
• Miles: 8.34
• Time: 3:13
• Up: 1539
• Down: 932
• Calories consumed: lots 
• Calories burned: 1359
• iPhone battery used: 10%

Sunday, May 3, 2026. Sunny, clear, low 50s, going up to upper 60s.

Up at 6:00. Packed and on trail at 7:00. Carrying 3 liters of water. 

Normal desert hiking day. We reached the infamous cistern at 10:10 and 8.1 miles. The water here is nasty, but I have had to use worse than this. Fortunately, I still have 1 liter and can skip the cistern as we are stopping at the DeBenedetti’s ranch in just a mile or so. 

There are 5 hikers here at the cistern: Natalie, Gandalf, Jacob, Niaal, and Emmett. All are headed to Little Bear Hostel 4.4 miles north.

We got to DeBenedetti’s ranch at 10:40. They are trail angels 15 minutes off trail. Lovely people. Water, soda, shade, snacks, power, toilet, nice seats, friendly dogs. Super nice people. We hung out and chatted for two hours! Orange Man, Brad, Titus, Kellie, Emmett.

We all got a soda, cheese stick, and two oranges upon arrival. Kellie was cracking up at the image of Orange Man peeling an orange with an orange knife wearing an orange bracelet. Some people amuse easily.

TJ and Mash arrived as we were leaving.

We had a hard slog the next 5 miles to get to Little Bear Hostel. Steep uphill and zero shade.

I arrived at 3:50 and 16.45 miles for the day. My feet were killing me. Little Bear is a self-service hostel with hot dogs, beer, soda, snacks, and a toilet. 

The temps dropped big time, and a storm rolled in. Brad, me, Gandalf, and 3 others slept in the garage. Kellie, Natalie, and Bobbie (aka Infinity) slept on the floor in the kitchen area.

We had a quick 50th birthday celebration for Brad when we got here. Natalie, Kellie, Gandalf, Emmett, Infinity, me, Brad, Jacob, and Niaal.

A quick note on Emmett. He has taken a vow of silence while on the trail. His goal is to become more present and mindful in life. He has not spoken in almost 2 weeks. He writes very eloquently. His new trail name is Presence.

Overall, it was a good day. I’m very happy we stopped at DeBenedetti’s and stayed at Little Bear Hostel. We are all looking forward to a huge breakfast at Paradise Valley Cafe tomorrow followed by our first zero day in Idyllwild.

Technical Notes:

• Pop Tart 340
• Chomps Beef stick 100
• Cheese stick 160
• Orange 70
• Hot dog x2 500
• Seltzer 300
• Cupcake 130
• Ramen 360
• Spam 170
• Propel x 0
• Water liters: 2
• Miles: 16.42
• Time: 9:13
• Up: 2218
• Down: 2776
• Calories consumed: 2330
• Calories burned: 3301
• iPhone battery used: 30%

May 2, 2026. No clouds, mid-40s going up to 83.

Up at 5:45. On trail at 6:30. Carrying 3 liters of water.

Today started with a long, hard climb. We kept ascending for 14.5 miles. The first 2 hours were not too bad, but it got hot by 8:30 and just kept on climbing. The views were pretty much the same all day. 

One new thing today were the black flies. They were around all day, but swarmed whenever you stopped. Little suckers bite too!

This is the largest pine cone that I have ever seen!

Got to the road by Mikes Place at 1:30 and there was trail magic. Hosted by two PCT hikers from last year. Everybody is worn out from that last 14.5 miles uphill with no water and nasty heat. The trail magic is awesome, especially the shade!

Grabbed 4 liters of water from the tanks by Mikes Place. Lots of hikers taking naps in the shade by the tanks. 

Mike’s place is a cabin where a guy named Mike lives and lets hikers camp on his property. When he is in residence, he provides snacks and a toilet. He was not there when I got water. Apparently, he showed up later in the evening, and the youngsters had a hell of a desert party with beer and cheap tequila.

Brad and I headed out at 3:30. Limited tenting spots ahead, and we want to claim one before the crowd gets there.

The next water is 12.6 or 13.5 miles away, depending on how clean you want your water. More on that with pictures tomorrow. Therefore, we carried 4 liters out of Mike’s place.

We trudged 4.6 more miles mostly uphill and found some decent spots to camp. Kellie and another hiker joined us. Glad we left early as at least a dozen others passed by looking for a place to camp. 

We had camp set up by 5:30. No cell service, no surprise.

It is amazing how dusty it is out here. Sand is one thing, but the dust is almost as fine as talcum powder and gets into everything. 

Overall, another damn hard day. That makes for back-to-back 20-mile days. My feet are not happy at all! I had to make dinner in my tent vestibule lying down to get my feet to stop screaming. 

Technical Notes:

• Pop Tart 340
• Slim Jim 140
• Skittles 120
• Croissant 350
• Kpop ramen 580
• Sweet Spicy tuna 80
• Fritos 350
• Propel x 1
• Water liters: 5
• Miles: 20.15
• Time: 9:00
• Up: 3883
• Down: 2145
• Calories consumed: 1960
• Calories burned: 3694
• iPhone battery used: 30%