The one where I get my trail name

On the long trails such as the Appalachian or PCT, it’s common for people to be renamed by the people they are hiking with. It’s a name that is usually based on something the hiker does, or their personality, etc. so we say it’s an earned name, not given one. It’s really common for hikers to not know each others given names, only the trail one.

Day 8: 15 miles hiked. It’s my birthday! I woke up early and only 15 miles from town where I had booked a hotel for 2 nights (my birthday present to myself). I had been trying to complete my first 10×10 (walk 10 miles before 10am) challenge for a few days, but was falling short due to my love of my sleeping bag. I woke up determined to meet a few new milestones, also as a present to myself. I got rolling out of camp by 6:30, and within a couple hours I had walked 6 miles to the 100 mile marker! I think my longest backpacking trip before this was at most 30 miles, so I was super proud of myself for getting this far. I couldn’t spend too much time relishing in my accomplishment because I also wanted to do 4 more miles in an hour and a half. Most of the last few days had been ridge walking along the side of a mountain, but today the landscape changed again to be meadows and fields. There were a lot of up and down rolling hills in the last 4 miles, and I needed to stop to get some water, so I ended up needing to sprint walk for the last 20 minutes. Nonetheless, I was able to cross the 10 mile mark at 9:59, thus completing my first 10×10 challenge! Soon after, I found some shade and sat down listening to the birds sing and watching the wind make waves of the grain. Not a bad start to the day! After about 30 minutes of peaceful meditation, I knew it was time to get my remaining 5 miles done so I could relax for the rest of the day. I eventually came upon Eagle Rock (you’ll get the name by the picture below) and some day hikers. Can I just say that day hikers smell amazing?? They smelled so fresh that it made me realize how terrible I and all of my new friends smell, despite the fact that we all try to do things like baby wipe baths every night. Anyways, it galvanized me to walk faster, knowing that a shower, laundry, and a bed were at the end of the trail. I made it to the Warner Springs community center and enjoyed a cold Diet Coke my friend, Real Irish, had got me as my birthday drink. We hitched a ride into town and I picked up a package I had sent myself in the mail that had all of my normal shower stuff in it. I can honestly say, I’ve never been more excited to shower in my entire life! After cleaning up, I went and ate dinner with friends (Ty-bye and Cheese Grater) and then had some beers with some new friends staying in the cabin next to mine, Beast and Gravy. All in all, an excellent birthday!

Day 9: 0 miles hiked. My first zero (zero miles walked). I sat around my hotel room and got semi-caught up on life (bills, texts, emails, etc.). I had breakfast with Real Irish, and lunch with Blase, Ty-bye, Cheese Grater, and Giggles. I watched the latest episodes of GOT. It was a pretty glorious day.

Day 10: 18 miles hiked. I had a pretty slow start to the day. Most of the people I had been hiking around had not taken a zero, so I didn’t know anyone. This made it mentally difficult to start hiking again, especially since I knew the day would be really hard, going straight up a hill with limited shade. I finally got on trail around 10am and started the long trek up. I started in the meadows of days previous, and it was amazing to see all the blooms. As I climbed, the flowers thinned out to yield spectacular views of the valley below. As I continued, the landscape again changed so that I was now surrounded by huge boulders, every which way. Because of the late start, I couldn’t take my normal siesta around noontime, as there was limited water, and I wanted to camp higher up where there was a trail angel that opened his house to hikers to get water. I rolled in around 7pm to find a raging party (40+ hikers) with beer, pizza and the Big Lebowski being projected on the side of the house. Unfortunately, the climb in the heat had utterly exhausted me, and I cowgirl camped (where you sleep under the stars) for the first time because I didn’t have the energy to set up my tent. After a small triangle of pizza, and a single serving of spam, I passed right out, while listening to the Big Lebowski play in the background.

Day 11: 18 miles hiked. I set my alarm early, determined not to hike in the heat again! Hiking before sunrise is the best. Also, it guarantees you get to see the sunrise, and today’s was spectacular! After yesterday’s difficult climb, today was mainly ridge walking, and the morning sun in the mountains was absolutely stunning! I managed to do another 10×10, and took an hourlong break after I finished. It was again very hot today, and I knew that I didn’t want to do much hiking during the midday, so after my break, I hiked for a few hours with lots of breaks before bailing out behind a bush that was giving me some shade. I put out my sun umbrella for my pack (no one likes hot water with melted food) and commenced with my 2 hour long break. I’m not one that can take naps, but somehow I managed to wedge myself between 3 rocks so that I was moderately comfortable enough to sleep for a bit. I’m reading a book that’s supposed to be a thriller, but it’s so dumb it knocks me right out every time I open it. So I’m sure that helped! After moseying along, I ended up getting my first blister of the trip. Not bad, considering everyone I know seems to have gotten at least 5-10 in the first 2 days. Also, it’s just a little on under my pinky toe, and it isn’t too bad at all! I was hiking on my own, but leapfrogging with a group of 3 hikers. I was just passed by one of the guys in the group, when he went around a rock wall corner and started to scream. I know that scream, I said to myself… that sounded like me when I was startled by the rattlesnake! I called out to see if he was ok, and he yelled something about a rattlesnake rattling at him. I asked if he got bit and he said no, and then I asked if I could go around the corner, cuz I still couldn’t see what was going on. Once I got the affirmative, I made my way over to the bush he was pointing at to check it out. My how the tables have turned since a few days ago! It was a little one, but another red diamond rattlesnake, nonetheless! I made sure the guy got around him okay and continued on my way! I eventually rolled into my campground for the night, and wow, what a change from the night before! Trail angel Mary’s place was idyllic! Clean everything, a pit toilet, a shower stall, picnic tables, a little library where she printed of poems and books about wilderness travel (think Thoreau, John Muir, etc.). I honestly never wanted to leave. As I set up tent, I heard a familiar voice outside, it was Blase! Apparently I had passed her at some point in the day, as the heat had made her not feel well and she took many, many naps hiding under bushes along the way. I was happy to have my old hiking buddy back, but a bit worried about her because she was really struggling with the heat, was cramping up, and getting sick, despite drinking lots of water and taking some electrolytes. We agreed to nero (near-zero) the next day, and do a slow and easy walk into town.

Day 12: 7 miles hiked. From Mary’s place to town it was a mere 6 miles of walking. Blase and I took it as easy as we could, knowing that there was a cafe within a mile of the trail with huge portions of food (meaning we probably walked faster than normal, despite our attempts). We passed the 150 mile marker along the way! As we neared the road, we were waved over by a man in a red truck that was parked on the side of the road taking hikers to the cafe, where he worked. Oh. My. God. This cafe was heaven! I ordered a breakfast burrito and it was as big as I ever hoped it would be. Blase and I ate breakfast with Yak and Skunch, and we were all completely stuffed by the end of it. I had sent myself my microspikes to this cafe, in anticipation of the looming mountain ahead. We also had a few errands to run, so Blase and I hitched a ride into Idyllwild (20 minutes away). This was my first hitchhiking experience, and it was nerve racking, but we were picked up by the nicest lady, named Sarah. We got stocked up on food, and then made our way to a campground that had hot showers. Blase’s cousin (Becca) was driving out to meet us, and she thankfully had enough quarters for us to each have a 9 minute shower!!! Seriously, real food and showers make for the best days. After cleaning up, Becca drove us back to the cafe, where I had an impressively huge burger. Although the cafe allowed for camping in the field next to it, we opted to get back on trail and hike a ways away from the road as it feels safer to camp away from roads and people. Becca dropped us off, and we hiked another 2 miles in before setting up camp for the night.

Day 13: 17 miles hiked. I woke up super early, and watched the sunrise over the mountains. We knew we had a crazy day of climbing ahead of us, so we got an early start to the day. The landscape changed from desert to alpine, the further we climbed and suddenly we were surrounded by pine trees instead of cacti! Along the way, Blase needed to stop to get water. As we approached the trail to get water, we saw a persons pack on the ground off to the side. Next to the pack was a giant rattlesnake (either a western diamond back or a southern pacific… I honestly couldn’t tell), just hanging out and exploring the persons stuff! We watched each other for awhile, before it eventually slithered off. Blase set down her stuff, and went down the trail to get water. Minutes after she passed, I looked over, and there was another, smaller, rattlesnake, this one just going up and down the trail she had just walked along. I watched him go along, and pointed him out to the others that came along to get water. I feel more confident in saying this one was a southern pacific. We eventually ran into Pigeon (formerly known as Courtney in my previous post) and the three of us hiked together for the rest of the day. It was a tough day, as we gained a lot of elevation, meaning the air got thinner. The scenery was stunning, as we looked out across the desert on either side. To our right was Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, and it was cool to see where I had hiked with my friends Skye, Jaselle, and Jasmin this past February, but this time from above. We decided to camp on a ridge that was close to a water source. The water was down a very steep trail, and we didn’t want to carry our packs up and down it, so we opted to camp at the top. It was a bit windy, but we were able to make it work!

Day 14: 10 miles hiked. Did I just say we made our campsite work? Because well, it didn’t. It was windy all night (normal). Pigeon and I had agreed to go down to the spring in the morning (Blase had gone the night before), and when we got out of our tents, we discovered that we were in the middle of a cloud and that it was sideways misting on us (not normal). Everything outside was soaked. We went down and got water, came back up, and everyone started to pack up their tents, which by this point had mostly blown over. By the time we were finished, we were all shivering, soaked, and had numb hands. We discussed it and decided that in order to avoid all of us getting hypothermia, we needed to get off the ridge we were on to more sheltered ground. The only problem was that the trail just continued on the ridge, and we didn’t know when or if we’d get more shelter. We had 2 options, go back several miles, and bailout off of the mountain back into the town of Idyllwild, or go down the trail where we had gotten water and hang out there in a tent. We decided on the latter because Pigeon and I had just been there, and we knew for sure that it was better conditions down there. So with our heavy packs, we climbed down the trail we had hoped to avoid, and once at the bottom, the three of us crammed into Blase’s tent to wait out the storm. We dried off a bit, made some hot chocolate, snacked, and warmed up over the course of 3 hours. While in the tent, Pigeon’s friend texted to say she had a cabin in Idyllwild that we could stay at the next night, and so our escape plans formed. We’d hike out 10 miles to a trail called devils slide, go down to the base of the trail and camp for the night, and then zero in the town of Idyllwild the next day. Plan in hand, and with semi-warm hands, we packed up to begin our 10 mile trek. It had warmed up a bit by this point, as it was almost noon. We were in a cloud for most of the day, and it was either misting, raining, snowing, or some combination of precipitation on us for almost the entire time. It was also incredibly windy (the next day someone told me that it was constant 40mph winds with gusts up to 60). I was very happy to have company, as it kept my brain from getting too down about how cold and wet I was. It was while we were chatting on one of our climbs that we got to talking about what name I should be called for the remainder of the trail. Most hikers wear tans, greys, greens, or other colors that tend to blend in with the landscape. In contrast, I wear a bright red skirt, blue shirt, bright blue tights, and occasionally wear a bright green wind shirt. My backpack is teal, my buff/headband is orange and yellow, and my hiking poles are purple. To say the least, I’m very colorful. The name’s Rainbow and Skittles were tossed around, and I also eat a lot of Skittles on trail, so that one stuck! We couldn’t stop and take too many breaks, as we would get too cold as we did, so we trudged along at a pretty steady pace. We crossed several snow patches, but they were not too dangerous to need our microspikes. Eventually, we got into camp at around 7, at which point we all got into our tents, not to leave until morning.

Pigeon hiking along the ledge