Hiking Warner Springs

I wasn't really expecting snow on this hike, but it was Thurs. the 10th - only a few days after the big storm on the 7th - and not everything had melted off yet. There were quite a few shady hillsides with significant patches of snow and still-frozen ground!

This hike is primarily through shrubbery - manzanita, yucca, and red shanks/ribbon wood.

Some nice boulders.

And...yes, cactus...in the snow!

Looking back.

Me.

This is definitely Yucca Town! This one here was a cool dead one (once they send up their one shoot and bloom, they die...), and from it, I actually got to finally see yucca seeds! They've always been dispersed already whenever I've seen the open pods. The seeds are flat and black, and there are hundreds (if not thousands?!) in one yucca pod (and many, many pods on one blooming yucca).

And...me again... 

Sunsetting.

This whole trail is a tiny section of the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail), which is about 2,000 miles and goes from our border with Mexico all the way up to Canada. You can often see caches of water set aside for the thru-hikers by "trail angels" (people who help out the PCT hikers, often anonymously). Many people manage to hike the entire PCT in one blow, going 20-25 miles/day for about 4-5 months, and there are a surprising number who do it solo (but they bump into each other so often they end up with a lot of friends!)! I would so love to be able to thru-hike the PCT - maybe in another life...

Since Bill needed the truck to go to Ramona on this day, I took his motorbike to get to and from the trailhead. That meant spending a lot of extra time just putting on and taking off extra layers of clothing, since the air temp going over was probably in the 50s but in the 30s coming back!!!! Brrrrr!!!!!!!! Despite gloves, etc., my face, fingers, and feet were all pretty cold by the time I got home! But I'm grateful for the transportation, as I really needed to get out and hike on this day! And riding added to the adventure - although it also added a bit to the muscle fatigue as well!