Outdoor Adventures with Ancient Brit
PCT 2002 - Day 14 April 21st
Day 14: Sunday 21st April
Saddle above Apple Canyon - Strawberry Junction Camp
A real mountain route this morning, climbing up to 8340ft and winding in and out of
rocky knolls and pinnacles on a path that was, in places, dynamited out of the rock face.
The PCT is meant to be for horses but I wouldn’t dare ride on some parts of today’s
trail. A fall off the path down near vertical slopes would give little hope of survival. The
trail then climbed up to the 9000ft contour for the first time, passing Tahquitz Peak,
named after a legendry Cahuilla Indian demon who lived in these mountains and dined
on unsuspecting Indian maidens, and when displeased, produced stormy weather. The
weather was beginning to warm up again, but it was pleasant in the shade of the pine
trees. To someone accustomed to the mountains of Europe I found it peculiar the way
that there is a lower limit to the tree line in these mountains of southern California. It
is too hot and dry for trees to grow at the lower altitudes. There are a lot more species of
pine tree than in Britain, each species having its own favoured climatic conditions and
altitude range.
I saw my first marmot of the trip, a large ground-dwelling rodent. The European
species of Marmot are shy animals living in large colonies in the high mountains, but
this American species seems to be more solitary and much less shy. They have strong
feet and claws adapted for digging, living in burrows or among boulder-fields in the open
mountains. Chipmunks and Grey Squirrels were also common in the woodland.
I stopped for lunch in a clearing in the forest and gave my heel some precautionary ice
treatment using snow from a snow patch that had survived from yesterday’s storm. In
this sheltered spot it was getting hot and I stripped off in the sun. A group of deer
approached very close, apparently unconcerned about me, until I made a sudden
movement when they bounded away. Except for the heel injury my body is beginning to
adapt to this long distance hiking and it is getting much easier to climb the hills.
It wasn’t until late afternoon that I came across my first water since Cedar Springs. This
was at Strawberry Cienaga, a trickling sphagnum-moss freshet. (Cienaga is Spanish for
marsh) Shortly after this I camped at Strawberry Junction Camp. The USFS had built an
earth-pit toilet on this site, a luxury in the wilderness.
Already camped at this site was Mike Peterson known as “Captain Cheerio”. He had
started his thru-hike a few days ahead of me, on 3rd April, and was making an even
gentler start. He was a 41year-old airline pilot with Continental Airlines. After the
attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11th 2001 they had laid off 10% of
their pilots and offered others unpaid leave. He was taking advantage of this offer,
taking a year off, giving him time to hike the PCT. He was unusual among the thru-
hikers in that his previous longest backpacking tip had only been 10 days. His main
experience of the outdoors has been cycle touring and he has also canoed on the
Boundary Waters of Minnesota. His inexperience was obvious from the look of his
equipment, which was both luxurious and heavy. He had been attracted to the idea of
walking the PCT when, as an 11 year-old in 1971, he had read the article about the PCT
that appeared in the National Geographic Magazine. At that time the PCT was far from
finished.
Over the last 2 days, I had only walked 21 miles in almost 12 hours, suggesting that
the walking was getting much tougher.
Day14: 11.8 miles 6.28 hours Camp: Strawberry Junction Camp
Saddle above Apple Canyon - Strawberry Junction Camp
A real mountain route this morning, climbing up to 8340ft and winding in and out of
rocky knolls and pinnacles on a path that was, in places, dynamited out of the rock face.
The PCT is meant to be for horses but I wouldn’t dare ride on some parts of today’s
trail. A fall off the path down near vertical slopes would give little hope of survival. The
trail then climbed up to the 9000ft contour for the first time, passing Tahquitz Peak,
named after a legendry Cahuilla Indian demon who lived in these mountains and dined
on unsuspecting Indian maidens, and when displeased, produced stormy weather. The
weather was beginning to warm up again, but it was pleasant in the shade of the pine
trees. To someone accustomed to the mountains of Europe I found it peculiar the way
that there is a lower limit to the tree line in these mountains of southern California. It
is too hot and dry for trees to grow at the lower altitudes. There are a lot more species of
pine tree than in Britain, each species having its own favoured climatic conditions and
altitude range.
I saw my first marmot of the trip, a large ground-dwelling rodent. The European
species of Marmot are shy animals living in large colonies in the high mountains, but
this American species seems to be more solitary and much less shy. They have strong
feet and claws adapted for digging, living in burrows or among boulder-fields in the open
mountains. Chipmunks and Grey Squirrels were also common in the woodland.
I stopped for lunch in a clearing in the forest and gave my heel some precautionary ice
treatment using snow from a snow patch that had survived from yesterday’s storm. In
this sheltered spot it was getting hot and I stripped off in the sun. A group of deer
approached very close, apparently unconcerned about me, until I made a sudden
movement when they bounded away. Except for the heel injury my body is beginning to
adapt to this long distance hiking and it is getting much easier to climb the hills.
It wasn’t until late afternoon that I came across my first water since Cedar Springs. This
was at Strawberry Cienaga, a trickling sphagnum-moss freshet. (Cienaga is Spanish for
marsh) Shortly after this I camped at Strawberry Junction Camp. The USFS had built an
earth-pit toilet on this site, a luxury in the wilderness.
Already camped at this site was Mike Peterson known as “Captain Cheerio”. He had
started his thru-hike a few days ahead of me, on 3rd April, and was making an even
gentler start. He was a 41year-old airline pilot with Continental Airlines. After the
attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11th 2001 they had laid off 10% of
their pilots and offered others unpaid leave. He was taking advantage of this offer,
taking a year off, giving him time to hike the PCT. He was unusual among the thru-
hikers in that his previous longest backpacking tip had only been 10 days. His main
experience of the outdoors has been cycle touring and he has also canoed on the
Boundary Waters of Minnesota. His inexperience was obvious from the look of his
equipment, which was both luxurious and heavy. He had been attracted to the idea of
walking the PCT when, as an 11 year-old in 1971, he had read the article about the PCT
that appeared in the National Geographic Magazine. At that time the PCT was far from
finished.
Over the last 2 days, I had only walked 21 miles in almost 12 hours, suggesting that
the walking was getting much tougher.
Day14: 11.8 miles 6.28 hours Camp: Strawberry Junction Camp
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PCT near Antsell Rock
Traversing
Southwell Peak
Southwell Peak
Approaching Red
Tahquitz Peak
Tahquitz Peak
Approaching Red
Tahquitz Peak
Tahquitz Peak
Captain Cheerio at
Strawberry Junction Camp
Strawberry Junction Camp