Episode 54 - PCT Update #2
Days 7 - 13: Warner Springs —> Idyllwild
Day #: 13
Total Miles Hiked: 180
Miles remaining: 2470
If this is your first episode and you’re thinking “what in the world is happening right now”, start here!
Still alive, baby! Brooke and I have spent the last two full days in Idyllwild, relaxing and getting some much-needed R&R. It’s a super cute mountain town with tons of shops and things to do, and it’s been the best time ever.
I must also add that Idyllwild has a lovely public library with many computers, free for public use. So here I am, typing away on a Dell. It’s been a while since I’ve used a PC with Windows OS, and I’m having to relearn the keyboard shortcuts. Godspeed.
This library also has a complimentary 3D printer. Idyllwild is living in the future.
It’s pretty crazy to think that we’re already 180 miles (!) into our thru-hike, but indeed we are! Legs are feeling strong, spirits are high, and I’m feeling more excited than ever. And, since this is my blog and I can do pretty much whatever I want on it, here are some lovely definitions related to thru-hiking that I’ve compiled over the last few days for your reference that you’ll see here and in many more future episodes.
I also must note that, having read Brooke’s blog about this section of the trail, I’ve realized that we literally put the exact same definitions into our intros. I’m convinced that she copied me, but the much more likely explanation is that we’ve been spending way too much time together. lol
Trail angel (n): A person, usually not a thru-hiker, who takes care of hikers, often in the form of food, rides, and lodging. Unsung heroes
Trail magic (n): Altruistic gestures administered by trail angels; known to restore faith in humanity and morale to thru-hikers. Free cold beers while hiking are unbelievably wonderful
Trail name (n): A name given to you on the trail because of some funny event or story. Used in lieu of your real name for the rest of the thru-hike
Ride bride (n): A pretty girl, with whom you try to hitchhike. Your odds of getting a hitch when with a ride bride are 100x greater than when alone. Brooke is my ride bride, and we have never waited for more than 7 cars to get a ride. Compare that to when I was hitchhiking in Alaska last summer, and counted over 250 cars driving by before one finally stopped
Hiker trash (n): A thru-hiker with a particularly disheveled appearance and simple lifestyle on the trail. Often mistaken for being homeless. Fair analogy, since we technically are nomads with no permanent home. I sometimes mistake myself for a dirty homeless clown
Hiker box (n): A box of assorted items discarded by other thru-hikers in town. One of the greatest inventions of all time, and the source of great Christmas-like joy each time I re-enter civilization
Tramily (n): Short for trail family, a group of other thru-hikers you hike long portions of the trail with. Sources of much laughter and joy. Current trail family includes two French dudes, Flo and Pablo
Town day (n): A day when you go into town to get more supplies and are subsequently blown away by civilization. Typically a nero or zero day. Usually results in me getting a Diet Coke or kombucha and drinking it in the shade on a wooden bench
Zero day (n): A day when you hike zero miles, saving your feet and your morale. Typically a town day, too.
Nero day (n): A day when you hike near-zero miles, saving your feet and your morale. Typically a town day, too. As you can tell, I copied-pasted the “Zero day” definition and changed around a few words. Improvise, adapt, overcome
Mayor Max III (n): A Golden Retriever dog and the current mayor of Idyllwild (only town in CA with a dog mayor). Mayor Max I and II died in office. Must be a stressful job.
Merriam-Webster, please hire me to write your definitions for you.
Also, please send me letters, postcards, or care packages! I get so so excited when I go to the post office. The next stop will be here:
PCT Hiker — Dennis Gavrilenko
1440 State Highway 2, USPS
Wrightwood, CA 92397
Alright, let’s do this thing!
Day 7, 5/17/2025:
Easy 7 miles today with ~800 feet of climbing.
After an amazing few hours at the Warner Springs Community Center with Skye, Brooke, and PCT hikers et al., we carried on our quest up the trail. I must remind you that the shower was amazing, the $1 coffee even more so. Truly a hiker’s paradise.
Already, the biome has vastly changed — instead of the desert shrubs, now there are beautiful oak trees, grassy meadows, and sandy streams. Such beautiful scenery
Skye joined us for a few miles, and it was again so lovely to chat and hike with her. She turned back around after ~4 miles to head back to her van and back to civilization — she has an online uni exam tomorrow, and then is driving back to the Bay! Fellow 925 homies are always the best
Brooke and I only continued onward for 3 more miles since we’d left the community center around 3ish pm. Found an amazing campsite near the Agua Caliente stream, chatted for a bit while listening to the rushing water, and cooked another delicious pasta dinner. Joanne’s ghost pepper flakes came in clutch again. Slightly overcast today, seems that it’ll rain tonight or sometime tomorrow.
Aaaaaand exciting update! I got a new spoon! I really didn’t think that something so small could bring me this much joy, but this cute (and ultralight) contraption has already provided so much happiness to me. I found it in the hiker box back at the Warner Springs Community Center (what a cool place), and snatched it right away. I mailed my other (heavier) spork home, and we’re all good to go!
The spoon’s handle is super long, and apparently, having a longer spoon is better for hygiene. Not only can I eat my yummy pasta from far away, I can also use it to eat from chip bags and whatnot without sticking my dirty trail hands everywhere. A huge win has presented itself, quite unexpectedly.
Chatted some more with Brooke in the tent, read some more of my beloved Asimov (still can’t believe my good fortune at finding Foundation’s Edge in the little library), and off to an early bed.
I’m getting really good at pooping in holes in the woods.
Day 8, 5/18:
New distance AND elevation record today! 25 miles with 3500 feet of climbing.
The goal today was to get out early, and get out early we did! Woke up at the crack of dawn and started hiking at 7:12 am. We are off!
First few miles were straight uphill, called Ariv and Mama along the way and had a great catch-up. Ariv’s doing super well, he was on a run himself and led a fun little event at Apple last Thursday. Epic. Stopped frequently to read my physical Sci-fi book, and would continue uphill while listening to a different Sci-fi audiobook. A truly amazing combo. The first time I heard Uhtovio in the new book, I literally hooted and jumped for joy, so so excited.
Around noon, we made it to the first water stop of the day and our lunch spot, Mike’s Place. Mike’s another trail angel, and the best one we've met so far! He’s an older dude with a huge ranch in the middle of nowhere, and has been inviting hikers for free food and drinks for the last few years.
The setting was really a phantom ranch kinda situation, with tons of graffiti and random art from other hikers, actually super super cool. Talked to Mike and two other trail angels for a good half hour, sharing stories and tall tales about our adventures. The two ladies were so knowledgeable about the local area, and had been trail angels for the last 20 years. Super funny hearing about their crazy stories from years on the trail and all the inexperienced “hikers” that came shortly after the movie Wild was released. Tons of evacuations and rescues that year.
Refilled our water at the cold water tanks, and we carried on! 3 more miles of uphill, then a 10-mile descent to our evening campsite, quite the trek. I was having a blast listening to more Uhtovio, and really enjoying the granite boulder scenery, lovely change of pace. Found Brooke exhausted on the side of the trail, her feet are KILLING her. We walked slow but steady the last three miles, and passed the time chatting about her study abroad research and her instructor Frank in Costa Rica. What an amazing dude and what a life he has.
Finally, 25 miles later, we made it to our campsite at another trial angel’s place. There were tons of other hikers here, Brooke and some of them played cards, I talked for a good half hour with Wesley, a disillusioned pharmacist from Anchorage going through an existential crisis. Honestly a great chat. Really cool van here to graffiti on (it’s encouraged), and wonderful company again.
There’s a group of hikers right in tandem with us hitting ~20 miles a day and who’ll start picking it up to ~25 once we hit Big Bear. They’re super fast, super fun, and from all over. A couple just graduated from Texas A&M, Scrub Daddy (his trail name comes from the fact he washes himself every evening) is from Vermont and hiked the AT, Kyle’s from Breckenridge, CO.
Scrub Daddy is hilarious. The PCT magic is really starting to come alive!
Day 9, 5/19:
22 miles today, 4500 feet of elevation gain. New elevation gain record!
Woke up at the crack of dawn again, and Brooke was off at 6:45. We’re trying this new thing where she leaves well before I do, I stay in and chill, then pack up the tent and catch her on the trail. We’ll see if that works.
Spent the morning reading and chatting with the other thru-hikers at the picnic tables. Such a fun group, I really will miss them. In an alternate universe, I might’ve gone on ahead with them and gone on an adventure there. One of the guys, Bill, had done the Arizona Trail a few years ago, doing ~35-40 miles A DAY, and his pack was nothing. Literally a day pack that weighs 15 pounds. No change of clothes or a jacket, max three days of food, a tiny tent, and barely a sleeping bag. These people are intense.
Had another existential conversation with pharmacist Wesley. Crazy dude. Tore his meniscus and started hiking 3 months post-surgery.
Tons of dogs here, they just are sitting and laying everywhere. Very very dusty here, and they constantly shake themselves out as if they just got out a lake.
AND BEST NEWS EVER! There was free coffee today! AMAZING!!! Trail magic is real. Enjoyed a nice cup while everyone left, and now I’m off. I have brooke to catch, and a burger to eat at Paradise Valley Cafe!
Update from 1 hour later: I’m FLYING. Gone 3.5 miles in the first hour, effectively straight uphill out a gorgeous cliff side canyon. Back at the campsite this morning, Kyle from Breckenridge had proposed me the trail name Bloodhound after I told him how I’d be chasing Brooke today, and I’m really warming up to the name. We’re doing this thing, and it feels so nice to be pushing myself this hard. Wow.
I also passed Wesley quite quickly this morning, quite worried about him because he’s hiking very slowly and it’s already super duper hot.
The pace slowed down a bit to an average of ~3 mph, and I was just vibing along in the heat to the wonderful sound of RC Bray. Skipped the two trail detours at the little bear hostels and some trailers (the signs said there was ice cream, but I had brooke to catch and it was a mile detour one way). Passed another hiking couple, passed the French dudes from a few days ago (and chatted with them a bit too), then took a lovely break in the shade. French dudes passed me again, and I decided to hike the last 2 miles to the road with them to chat and have some company.
They’re awesome! Both are medical residents in France, and just took the summer semester off to thru-hike the trail. Their parents are worried, but they have each other and until the beginning of November to get back to their studies. One specializes in joints (a rheumatologist, I think?), the other’s a dermatologist. I’ve been meeting some super interesting people on this trail! So so cool.
We made it to the main road, 12 miles from the day’s start, and I said bye to the French dudes — they continued onward, and I continued west along the road to make it to Paradise Valley Cafe. No luck with getting a hitch, so I walked the entire mile on the road’s shoulder.
Everyone was at Paradise Valley Cafe! Brooke, Kyle, Bill the ultralight backpacker, scrub daddy from Vermont, the Texan couple, the Kiwis, and more. Apparently I had JUST missed Liam, who’d already made it to Idyllwild but was hitching to paradise valley cafe to pick up a new phone he ordered to be delivered there. Apparently he dropped his other one so much it broke. lol
Gave Kyle back his bandanna that I’d found on the trail earlier in the day, and I’ve never seen anyone happier. He thought he’d lost it forever, until his valiant hero arrived and returned it to him. Gave me a MASSIVE kiss on the cheek
Enjoyed a delicious josé burger with 2 cokes at the cafe, and spent about 2.5 hours there with everyone just relaxing and enjoying the company and shade. Really lovely staff, super kind and hospitable, and super nice just reading in the shade and getting to know everyone a bit better. Bill, the ultra-light thru-hiker, is 45 (but looks 30) and did odd jobs around Indiana (including a very brief stint as a sewer worker), then quits after saving enough money and hikes until he runs out. What a way to live. This man is so concerned with pack weight.
Brooke left around 2:45, everyone else left slowly but surely too. Kyle, Quinn, and I left around 3:30, and caught a hitch right from the parking lot as a pickup truck was leaving. We hopped onto the back, and were dropped off right at the trailhead a few minutes later! The driver and his wife are beekeepers in Arizona and super, super nice.
Back on the trail, I began a loooooong conversation with Kyle where we basically exchanged life stories. Turns out that Kyle is 38 and divorced. I thought he was 26. This trail has shown me just how bad I am at telling people’s ages, that’s for sure.
And Kyle’s sure had an interesting life. After going to UT Austin for bio and dreams of being pre-med, he moved to Nashville to study for the MCAT, became a nursing assistant, became disillusioned with medicine from that experience, and then basically worked in a bar there for 8 years, living it up in Tennessee. He thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2019, then he and his wife moved to Colorado. She hated it there because she was far away from her family in Philly, and after her dog died, their marriage got some major communication issues, and Kyle got increasingly overworked in his beer salesman job, she left him. Kyle then quit his job, and is now thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with no plan of what to do afterward. Wow. Great conversation about dating life afterward and really interesting analyzing his relationship lessons to my life.
There are some super interesting people on this trail, and I’m beginning to realize that that’s not a coincidence — the self-selecting group of people that choose to do something like this are bound to be interesting.
We also saw some trail workers maintaining the path, and thanked them profusely. Unsung heroes right there.
We eventually caught up to brooke, and made it to camp where scrub daddy, bill, and the Texans were waiting for us. Lots of laughter and a good time later, me and brooke went to bed early. Our bodies are beginning to feel exhausted from all this hiking, can’t wait for the day off in Idyllwild soon.
Day 10, 5/20:
19 miles today, 5000 feet of elevation gain. New climbing record!
Today had both the most physically exhausting but also the best views. Woke up absolutely tired and sore, but gorgeous ridge walking in the San Jacinto mountains in the afternoon easily raised my spirits. California is beautiful.
Woke up around 7, and the rest of the camp was already gone. They were talking about pushing 17 miles in the morning without water before refilling at the end of the day, and brooke and I passed on that. Nice slow morning, and we were out at 8:20. Felt super sore and really tired today, I’m really feeling these 155 miles.
Punishing uphill the first three miles, then we arrived at the first water refill of the day at Cedar Springs. There’s not really any water on trail anymore, so this Cedar Springs refill was a steep mile downhill away. Yikes. Left our bags under a tree on the trail, went down there, refilled at a really pretty campsite, chatted with the French guys who came down with us, then crawled back uphill to the main trail.
We came back to our bags, and OH MY GOODNESS THERE WAS MORE TRAIL MAGIC!!! Two dudes, Hamburger Helper and Raven, had set up a massive picnic for us, the French guys, and Quinn, and we were just blown away. Delicious pb&j burritos, cold beers, and fresh watermelon and strawberries. Trail angels are real angels.
Spent a good hour there with everyone, just relaxing in the shade and sharing a bunch of stories. Hamburger Helper had been doing this for 19 years now, and told us some fun stories about the PCT from back in the day. Fellow Eagle Scout too, and talked about his crazy experiences working at a summer camp in Arizona when he 14 and his super impactful troop Scoutmaster. Amazing trail book too, which we all signed together and read with laughter. Hamburger Helper kept telling us how much he enjoyed doing this, and thanked US for bringing more joy into his life. We also got some free sun bum sunscreen and lip balm, his friend works there. Simply wow.
His book defined trail magic and trail angels, and angels and magic are indeed perfect ways to describe them. They appear unexpectedly, coming from nowhere, and bring great joy and happiness when you least expect it and most need it. What a special experience. Thanks Hamburger Helper and Raven!
Super high energy after that lunchtime, brooke and I powered uphill and enjoyed the amazing views of Coachella valley, we’re approached Mt. San Jacinto soon! Currently taking a lovely break under a tall pine tree to write all this down and it’s time for me to go again. I have brooke to catch!
Update: I’m farting so much these days, and they smell just like beef jerky. This is crazy.
Suffered a lot on the climbs today. The ascent was up some truly stunning ridges in the San Jacinto mountains, and it was the steepest and hardest hiking of the trail so far. Most intense physical and mental anguish so far, but we made it to the top successfully. Truly beautiful mountains, pine trees, and granite boulders, it really feels just like the high Sierras and Yosemite here now. Caught up to Quinn and Brooke, chatted with them for a bit, then carried on ahead. Took a ton of breaks today, really really needed them.
Finally finished my Skippy audiobook #18, as usual it ended with a cliffhanger so you know there’s going to be another book. I already can’t wait! Unfortunately no Scorandum scenes in the second half.
Powered up the last 4 miles uphill before finally arriving to camp. Beautiful sunset, so many colors and amazing to see the mountain shadows envelop Coachella Valley. Delicious ramen dinner with chocolate and biscotti dessert, and an early night in. We earned it!
Quinn apparently doesn’t have any stove or fuel, and eats all his meals completely cold. Only warm food he gets is in town or from trail angels, I have no idea how he has any morale left at this point. I’m very very impressed.
It’s crazy to think that we were in San Diego only 11 days ago. It already feels like a completely different lifetime.
We make it to Idyllwild tomorrow for our first rest day. Civilization! Finally!
Day 11, 5/21:
From here to the end was written in the library on an actual computer with all ten fingers, so likely the tone and style is much different than my trail writings with my two thumbs.
7 miles today, 700 feet of elevation gain.
Today was town day!! Hooray!
Brooke and I had a pretty slow morning today, and left our lovely Sierra-esque campsite around 8:30. It was a short trek on the trail today, with just a few miles on the actual PCT and then a 3-mile descent down to the parking lot near town. We made a slight detour to ascend the nearby Tazquitz Peak, and it was surprisingly quite awesome. Not only was there a beautiful fire lookout at the top with some epic views, but we left our packs at the trail junctions and flew up the peak with nothing but our trekking poles and high spirits.
I later learned that Tazquitz Peak is a mecca for climbers in SoCal and where the Yosemite Decimal System for rating climb difficulty was created and refined. We’re not even in Yosemite, but it looks close enough to it that it counts. Really, really cool.
Back at our packs, we descended down to the parking lot (some Asian lady was really impressed we were thru-hikers), walked to the exit road, and waited for someone to leave and give us a ride into town. One rich-looking white lady driving a Tesla smirked at us and sped away (lol), but fortunately, we managed to get a ride from the very next driver.
He pulled up in a pickup truck with no tailgate, told us to “hop in the back because I’m in a hurry”, and sped us down the mountain into town. This ride bride thing is real! He dropped us off right in the town center, where Kyle, Scrub Daddy, et al. were gathered outside the pharmacy. We chatted for a bit, but dipped quickly because we were starving. We walked next door to the pizzeria, ordered a massive 16” combination pie, and put it down in about 5 minutes. That’s 200 square inches of pizza right there, gone in a flash.
It was honestly super weird to be back in civilization. Warner Springs had just a tiny community center with some hiker facilities, but Idyllwild is a full town with everything that such a town needs. The pizzeria had lots of people and tons of TVs, and it was all a little bit overstimulating already. Crazy. We also saw Kyle in there, and we exchanged contact info after a lengthy conversation regarding his quest across the Idyllwild hair salons to find nice conditioner.
The next stop of the day was to do laundry at the laundromat in town. Not the bucket laundry situation that was happening in Warner Springs, but a proper laundromat with industrial-grade washers and dryers. The best part was that while all your clothes were washing, hikers could wear donated clothes around town. Made for some really funny outfits.
Sasha, my friend from UCLA (and whom I met on the same backpacking trip that I met Brooke), decided to take the day off from life and come visit us in town, so we spent the rest of the day. Got another delicious pizza for dinner (there are 2 pizzerias in town, the second one was better), some drinks at the grocery store for some post-dinner celebrations, and went back to the room to celebrate.
This grocery store experience was crazy weird. It started off with some guy driving a pickup truck packed with firewood telling us about his firewood-selling business for 5 minutes, Sasha gaslighting him into thinking he wanted to sell redwoods, and then us randomly walking into Flo and Pablo in the grocery store. While looking at the beer selection, a random guy approached us with a bag of rainbow carrots and asked if we wanted to split them.
I have never been more confused.
Turns out he was also a thru-hiker, and eventually we agreed to split the carrots. The cashier who sold them to us was the most goth person I’ve ever met in my entire life, and I told Sasha in Russian that I thought the cashier was a vampire and would eat us.
It was such a funny tale, in fact, that Brooke was offered the trail name “Rainbow Carrot” and later accepted. Hooray!
Day 12, 5/22:
A full Zero day! Lots of strolling around town, but this bad boy isn’t going on Strava.
Brooke and I woke up tired and slightly hungover after yesterday’s festivities with Sasha, so we decided to spend another full day in town to relax and finish town chores. I got myself a lovely coffee and called Federico, then chatted with Brooke and met up with Sasha again.
Nomad Ventures is single-handedly the coolest outdoors shop I’ve ever been to in my entire life, and I wanted to buy everything in the store. Zack, the dude who worked there, was super knowledgeable and friendly (especially about backpacking quilts), and even checked out my sleeping bag to figure out why my feet were so cold. Turns out there wasn’t much down in the bottom of my bag, and Zack recommended I put it in the dryer with some tennis balls to fluff up the down around the bag. Apparently it’s a real thing that actually works.
So that’s how I found myself drying my sleeping bag with some dog tennis balls (the only ones I could find in town) in a laundromat in Idyllwild. Spent about an hour there while I read and called family and friends, then at 4 I met up with Brooke to meet the famous Mayor Max.
It was an American spectacle — a Golden Retriever dog with a tie and jacket, with huge crowds waiting to take a picture. Also a donation box for “political contributions”. This stuff is hilarious. Flo and Pablo, the two French guys, pulled up to check it out and were in awe. I told them this was possibly the most American thing they’ll see their entire trip.
Dinner at 6 with our tramily, and the best time ever. We got Mexican food at La Casita with Flo, Pablo, Sam, Skylar, and Quinn, and had the best time ever with so much laughter. Sam got me started about the co-op, and that conversation lasted an hour at least. Showed off our fuel transfer as well, impressing everyone at the table and making me very happy and proud.
After dinner, we all went back to me and Brooke’s room so I could show off the fuel transfer. We had the best time talking about my comments on Far Out and how funny everyone found them, and I honestly haven’t laughed that hard for so long in a while. Truly a wonderful group of people we found. Everyone was impressed with the fuel transfer, and I lent it to Sam and Skylar so they could save some money, too. Shared some of Sasha’s Trader Joe’s chocolates with everyone and called it a night. We’re all planning on camping at the summit of Mt. San Jacinto tomorrow, and I might even bring up a watermelon to share.
Day 13, 5/23:
Our last day in paradise. Brooke and I woke up in the lovely, king-sized bed (the last bed we’ll be sleeping in for a while), had a delightful morning coffee and breakfast of leftover burrito, and were outta there by 10. Since we dropped (translation: dumped) off a bunch of unneeded things to Sasha, my backpack has become a bit lighter and a lot more elegant. There’s now nothing really strapped to the back (before there was a camp chair and extra sleeping pad, now there’s just the solar panel and my flip flops), and it looks so nice and professional.
I look like a true thru-hiker!
We dropped off our keys at the main lodge, then walked over to the post office for Brooke to mail some postcards. She also had the brilliant and slightly impulsive idea to buy some nail polish, and then offer to paint the nails of all the other hikers we meet. We’ll see how that goes.
Right next door to the post office was the same grocery store we went to the last two days, so we headed in and I made the slightly less impulsive decision to actually buy the watermelon and eat it at the top of San Jacinto Peak with Flo, Pablo, Sam, and Skylar. It weighed 14 pounds.
I predict I’m going to regret this idea 1/2 mile up the mountain. It’s 8 miles and 4500 feet of climbing to the top, but as my brother and I say when we play Yahtzee, THE PEOPLE DEMAND IT. Maybe I’ll even get a trail name out of it.
Polished up this blog post on the Idyllwild public library computer, and we’re off! Big Bear, here we come!
Unrelated to the PCT, but my dad caught 2 possums in our chicken coop the other day, and a great horned owl living in my court was harassed by a gang of ravens. Life in Antioch doesn’t stop.
love reading about more or less the same events from your and brooke’s perspectives. happy hiking!!!
THE PEOPLE DEMAND IT 🍉