5/7/14 Wed - 5/8/14 Thur. A Hiker Friend From Our Washington Hike in 2013! Deep Creek Canyon (more snakes) and the Mojave Spillway.

Loading wet stuff into packs & putting on cold wet things was no fun but the skies were clear and we knew we might warm up by hiking. My iPhone battery died in the cold, (I'll have to sleep with it when it gets cold again) so, no photos today. 

My pack is heavy and not fitting well, I keep adjusting as I hike, maybe I need to repack things and see if that helps but for now it's an annoyance. 

We stopped for a break by a small stream as another hiker came over the logs looking for the trail.  He said "PegLeg is that you?" He then said, " I saw you two in Washington last year didn't I?"  It was Mark who had camped near us at Rock Creek the 2nd day on the trail last year!  We had a nice update on what we were all doing on the same trail again this year. He'll hike as far as Yosemite, he's fast.  He's got a trail name now because he just turned 50, the younger hikers named him "Fiddy".  No photo because the phone was dead, rats.

We are seeing huge pine cones with wicked points on them all over the ground, they're from Coulter Pine trees and would do some real damage if they hit us.  Wish I had a photo. 

We dried out our stuff in a bit of sunshine and finally saw a slash of greenery between the hills which was the opening of the Deep Creek Canyon.  We crossed a pretty good sized bridge over the water and used the sandy beach for a lunch break also filtering 2 liters of water each for dry camping.  We couldn't get to Deep Creek Hot Springs, 7 miles beyond us, we'd put too many miles in & were tired.  Looking high and low we found a spot uphill off trail and set up camp, this type of spot is called stealth camping, away from other obvious camp sites and out of sight of passers by. We felt lucky to have found something, the canyon is not often open enough for flat ground and we'd spent hour contouring around the hills 100-200 feet above the river.  We set up, cooked dinner, read & journaled them fell asleep thinking of our next water opportunity. It's always on our mind, the quest for water.

Both of us felt tired today and we think maybe the effort to keep warm last night in the snow has used a reserve that is now empty.  Dinner will help, I fixed noodles with dried pork roast, dried vegetables, seasoning and some potatoes to thicken it.  Peggy & I laugh at how fast I inhale my food!

  The next day we continued to wind deeper into the canyon, the pools visible from the trail made me want to get down there to play in them but the stream is designated a wild trout stream, catch and release only and parts are closed to use because of endangered toads. 

Here's one pool seen from the trail above.

 Pools glistening in the morning light. 

Yellow Flannel Bush is beautifully colorful amid the browns and greens of the canyon.

Finally we came to the hot springs and small pools built to hold in hot water for bathing. We took a break here but no swimming since the day looked to be hot & we had miles to go. 

I had another rattlesnake moment, one was in the trail when I saw it.  Stopping suddenly I gave it time to rattle once and slither into a bush on the outside of the trail where it hung suspended. I yipped and hit a high note while Peggy had time to stop behind me. The snake hung in the bush so I sidled by it and Peggy waited to see if it would move then hot footed past.  I guess we're getting used to it because we just moved on past without too much dithering!  We set up our umbrellas due to the heat which really helped get us through the canyon today. 

This bridge was a surprise painted in rainbow colors.

The canyon seemed to go on forever, never getting to the water until we passed out of the canyon and onto the spillway of the Mojave earthen dam.

We walked across the dirt and off below the rocky hillside into the greenery where there was a small stream.  We took a long break there and cooled our feet in the water along with other groups of hikers seeking shade.  Shortly 2 jeeps came motoring up the stream bed making a huge mess of water and mud, then they proceeded to get stuck which I think was the point of it for them.  We were disgusted that they'd ruined the water source for hours so we walked above where they were stuck to get good clear water.  They left after a half hour and we opened our umbrellas and rested in the shade for an hour.  We helped a hiker named Colonel Mustard whose knees were very painful.  He'd been using too much ibuprofen so we gave him some Aleve to get him to the next stop where we encouraged him to seek medical help for the pain. 

 While hiking later, Peggy saw a rattler poke his head our of a hole in the middle of the trail, it ducked back out of sight but now it made me nervous as I stepped over all the critter holes, what was inside?  Yikes!

  We found a small spring and camped not far from it in a nice little site just off the trail.  Everyone passing us said we'd gotten the sweet spot... I agree.  We loaded up on water, rinsed a few items and made dinner. A small breeze added to our comfort and a little overcast to keeps  us cool. Tomorrow we'll be up at 5:00 for hiking in the cool morning which seems to be my best hiking time.