April called this morning (May 13) from Warner Springs, CA.
Warner Springs is at mile 109. They arrived there Thursday evening. Warner Springs consists of a gas station and a resort. They stayed at the resort last night and will be there tonight. She said it's an "active resort" where folks trail ride and bike(?). I asked if it had rooms in back for hikers and she said that they seemed to like hikers. It's all little cabins and last night they paid $45 for a $121 room. Tonight will be more because it's the weekend. I asked about food and she said they eat in the restaurant. It has a dress code, but when E and A said they didn't have any of the required clothes they were told they were welcome. Perhaps they provide local color. There's no place to buy food, but they knew that so had sent a food box to themselves.
The resort has 2 outdoor pools and a hot springs pool. A was looking forward to the hot springs. She said that after showering she noticed that her toe nails were still ringed w/ dust.
They left Providence around 8 AM ET and by 3 PM PCT they were in Campo, taking pictures. They hiked about 3 miles and camped. I asked if they heard or saw any illegal aliens (supposed to be pretty common) and she said no.
They walked 17 mi to Laguna Marina Campground. It was about 60 degrees. There was supposed to be a grill/grocery store that they were planning to get food at. It turned out that the grills had been taken out and the store was full of cockroaches. She said it was really hard to find stuff that they were willing to buy. Every time they picked up a box a cockroach would scurry. They bought 4 frozen burritos which they cooked in a micorwave. 3 had mold. She ate the 4th one. They repackaged all the food as soon as they left the store.
They walked most of the way to Mt. Laguna St Park. There was supposed to be a store there which the guide said wouldn't be much help. However they had a great experience. When the owner saw them sitting in front of the store early in the morning he opened it early. The store had food and it was super clean.
They walked along the Laguna Mtns. The trail overlooked the desert on the east and she said the views were fantastic. However a very cold wind started to blow from the W. They both tied their sun hats down tight and it was really difficult to walk into the wind. Then a mist started blowing. The trail was beautiful but very steep w/o a wide area to camp. Around 3 PM they stopped to eat at a stop w/ a pit toilet. She said it was kind of like a highwy rest stop but it was big enough for a tarp. They decided to stay there for the night because they didn't know how much farther they could push on and where the next possible tarp site would be. E set up the tarp w/ the end into the wind and pitched low. It worked very well. Someone else stopped but spent most of the night in the toilet because it was the first time he'd pitched his tarp and the wind was causing problems.
They hiked 18-19 mi. They figured they were 25 mi from the San Felipe Hills which are notoriously hot. They wanted to get to them early in the morning rather than at noon so tried to pushed on to get closer. They camped 4 mi away from the Hills and Wed started up them about 9:30.
They were each carrying 6 L of water because there would be no water for 23 mi. They stopped every 45 minutes and drank. She said they were lucky because it was cooler than usual. They don't have a thermo but thought that in the shade it was about 70 and in the sun 85. There's little shade. There was supposed to be a cache of water but there was only .5 L so they left it for someone else. The trail was a contour trail that stayed at the same height but went into every gully. That night they stayed in a great site overlooking a valley. They just used their bug bivvy and slept under the stars.
They walked 19 mi to Warner Springs. She said the second day of hot dry hiking was harder, but they are 1/2 day ahead of schedule. They get up at 5:30 AM and are ready to hike at 6:30. They stop in the middle of the day where there's some shade.
Because of all the rains this winter there are lots of blooming cacti. They have also discovered that because of the cacti and dry grass their socks gather lots of stickers. When they stop, they pull out stickers...grooming?
They have not seen any rattlesnakes, but did meet some cows on a steep hillside and were not sure how to get around them. They are both fine. Only their wrists have gotten sunburned but are not bad. They wear their sun clothes and use sun screen.