Wrightwood

5/10 -
Day 30 - "You know you're hard-core when you think the temperature is 55 degrees and it's only 43." -Maria

This morning my beloved "J. Cochrane" white cotton long-sleeve shirt finally disintegrated. I bought a new blue pinstripe shirt from a drunk couple in the parking lot of a closed thrift store. The shirt is more formal than anything I wore in S.F., and my new title is "C.E.O. of the Menacing Vegetables." -Ez

You know you're living the good life when:
· You ask yourself, "Do the M&Ms go with breakfast or snacks?"
· You have to make a rule about throwing pine cones in the kitchen.
· Your chores are 1.) hike the PCT and 2.) go to France.
· Weather dictates your attire: you never have to decide what to wear.
· You never have to wait for the bathroom.
· Your body craves fat.
· You are always on time.
· Everything you eat tastes great.
· You never know what time it is.
· The rising gas prices don't affect you.
· You never hear about the Gore/Bush campaigns.

5/11 -
Day 31 - Tonight's potluck was perhaps the most successful yet-several dishes tasted like something we might find at a restaurant. With food that Cynthia sent me in Big Bear-coconut milk powder, dried yams, tofu skins, and Massaman curry paste-I was able to make one of my tastiest trail dinners ever. Thanks Cynthia! -Ez

5/12 -
Day - 32 We have arrived at Paradise on Earth-Deep Creek Hot Springs. This geothermic wonderland is a series of handmade pools built to capture the hot water as it flows from the hillside. The pools (there are about 5 or 6) are set in the steep granite banks of Deep Creek and range from about 100-104 degrees. What a treasure! Deep Creek is the largest river we have yet seen and one of the only that flows year-round. It cuts a deep canyon through these dry hillsides and has provided soggy relief to our dusty days. Upon arrival this afternoon we spent a long while sampling the various pools and diving into the river for cool relief. I think we'll be taking a day off here. -Ben

Vocabulary term
Ben and Ezra have gotten us all referring to our long underwear as our "warmies." Ex- "I will start dinner as soon as I get my warmies on."
- Scrapies: The last morsels of dinner, acquired by scraping the side of the pot with spoon or fingers.
- Mechanically Separated Chicken: what we call Slim Jims; derived from one of its ingredients. Ex- "Snap into a mechanically separated chicken!"

5/13 -
Day 33 - Zero mile day. Our Second. The last one was at Kamp Anza on day 16. As Ben said, we have found paradise on earth. We have been looking forward to this hot spring since before the hike began.
It has been our theme on this trip to walk slower than the thru-hikers whose priority is Canada. Last night as we soaked in the spring under the moonlight we jokingly came up with a "rule" for our group: If our PCT miles - per-day average exceeds 10mpd, we have to either take a side trip or a day off. And so it is, here on day 33, though we have walked over 360 miles in these days, only 308 are PCT miles.
Today is a day of bathing, reading, swimming, fishing, writing, washing, bird watching, lounging, napping, relaxing, maybe some rock hopping, but no hiking.
Of course, as we got up leisurely this morning (an hour or two after dawn for a change) and took a morning soak before breakfast, some thru-hikers passed us. I called to them to let them know they had made it to the hot springs, so they came down. They were a nice couple, seemed to be having a good time. But they left their packs on. They had done nine miles already today, and Canada is still a long way off. - Jonny

Day 33 - Excerpted from a letter to a friend: Yesterday evening Ezra commenced his first attempt at catching some fish for dinner. Well, he didn't manage to hook anything before supper time, but later last night we took another dip in the spring. After getting good and hot, I climbed to the rocks for a jump in the river whereupon I noticed that it was now boiling with fish. The whole stream, which is quite calm in this section, must have harbored a hundred fish all surfacing to feed on the evening bugs, and occasionally leaping clear of the water. Ezra could not resist & threw in his rudimentary fishing apparatus (a bit of line, a fly, & a candle for a bobber all wrapped around a pepper shaker which he intends to use to season whatever he catches). One cast and lo and behold, Ez is standing in the pool with a catfish on the end of his line. What he didn't know is that catfish have some pretty mean quills & if you don't know hot to handle one, it can be a painful experience. So there we were in the dark, looking at this thorny animal flopping around with a hook in it's mouth. Well Jonny had done a bit of catfishin' maybe 20 years ago, so he stepped up and began to remember/explain the technique for grabbin' a catfish. "The quills are here, you just have to get your hand under them when they're spread like this & then...grab it. Hey - I did it! I can't believe I remembered how to do this! Look everyone!" Jonny turns around with this big old catfish totally subdued in his hand & an ear to ear smile. What a moment! Ezra once again saved from the brink of disaster. Releasing the hook & sending the catfish home took a matter of seconds & all was well once again. The lesson learned: Don't cast a line unless you're prepared to deal with whatever you might find on your hook. I think this may have implications beyond fishing. - Ben

5/14 -
Day 34 - Off I go into the wild gray yonder. A fantastic time. Perhaps the best time of my life. I head to France in a week to join someone I love. To experience some new great things. It is hard, however, to leave this trail which has been such an experience, and to leave 4 people I love. Thank you, guys, good luck, have fun and who knows, maybe I'll see you in October! Chow Legumes! - Kate

5/15 -
Day 35 - Can hear the pistol range as we leave Silverwood State Park. This recreation area is not very earth-friendly. A man made lake with a 250 foot high dam that is used for motor boats and jet skis, several campgrounds and picnic areas, paved bike paths, and of course, the pistol range. - Jonny

Day 35 - It is true, the Vegetables lost one of their most menacing members yesterday. Kate headed to France from Deep Creek. (Staggerin Willy, our CEO, decided to downsize the company. It was either Kate or our dental plan, ie toothbrushes). The group also split up for a few days at this point. I saw Ben and Ezra Yesterday at the Summit Valley Country Market (Beer, Ice, Bait). I waited for Maria, though, and they camped a half mile ahead of us. They intended to hike 20 miles today to Del Taco for dinner and then 22 tomorrow to Wrightwood, while Maria and I will do 14 miles for three days. Hopefully they will figure this out and we'll see them there. - Jonny

Day 35 - The boys or "girls" as Kate and I call them, have been doing almost all the writing so I thought I better represent the non-menacing part of the group. Yesterday, in a section that was only 1/2 mile long, I lost the trail for over an hour. I won't go into the details but I will say that I was walking in the middle of the creek with water up to my shorts, cursing the trail and its poor signage... On the up side, my feet felt clean and refreshed. Tonight I lie in my tent well before sunset, listening to what seems like hundreds of various birds calling to each other. Who needs music when you're in a meadow surrounded by so many birds - Maria

5/16-
Phone conversation with Tanner on day 36
Tanner - Where are you?
Jonny - McDonalds.
Tanner - Where?
Jonny - McDonalds.
Tanner - No. What town?
Jonny - I don't know.

5/17-
Day 37 - Since Ben and Ezra have not been around to write for a few days, I thought I would put a story in for them that I don't recall reading on the laptop. A couple weeks ago, Ezra and Ben came around a corner just in time to see a big bird flying away with a snake in its claws. Pretty cool, huh? - Jonny

(I'm assuming this is where the camera went bad. That or is was the day they woke up in the forest fire. They couldn't have mentioned it, of course, since the paper would have been burned.)

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