Day 2

So it took me forever and a day to get packed up and out of Hauser Canyon.

I had barely enough water for a morning cup of coffee. I opted to head to the spring for one fillup, walk back, and then make breakfast while packing up.

A quick pack up and go was not in the cards with all the condensation all over everything. But boy was it pretty here, and I had a lot to be grateful for.

Happy Easter 2023

There was so much beauty all around. The birds were singing, there were butterflies, and it was a new day. It was not just any day though. It was Easter morning, and a day to celebrate that Jesus, our Lord has risen!

Getting Organized

So I set up my Sawyer Squeeze to filter a bottle of water, while I boiled what I had left for coffee, and oatmeal. I organized my gear, and wore my longer leggings today. But I put my shorts in the pocket for easy access to them. 

Re-Packing My Pack

The way I organize my pack is I put the sleeping bag first, in a dry bag liner, followed by sleeping pad, raingear, winter stuff, extra clothing and miscellaneous stuff. Then I close the dry bag, placing the food bag, tent, and cookware on top. In the pocket of the front of my bag is where I put my dop kit (trowel, tp, wipes), a small food bag with the day’s snacks, and my first aid kit in a ziploc, along with my sit pad. I try to keep things organized in bags to make it easy to take out what is needed.

In my side mesh pocket I keep things that have sharp ends or could be easily damaged if compacted. So my CNOC water filter bag and Sawyer, spoon, tent stake bag, and sometimes my MSR Pocket Rocket Stove go in here. I attach my Garmin In-Reach here as well, along with a pack towel. The mesh bag is great for the water filter, since it can easily dry off here.

Side pockets are for my trekking poles, and water bottles. I like to use 1.5 liter bottles on each side, and a 1 liter in the front pocket. So I always have 4 liters. In my front zip pocket I put snacks, a battery, a small microfiber washcloth for blowing my nose, and wiping off sweat. I attach a Kula Cloth to a strap. I attach a whistle to one of the daisy chains on my pack straps too.

Breakfast

I sat down to enjoy my breakfast in this beautiful meadow, amongst the oaks, surrounded by beautiful Easter morning wildflowers. Today breakfast would be peanut butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar oats.

The sun was coming up fast, and I knew I was lagging today. I kept looking at the Far Out app to estimate how far I could make it today. Little did I know, today would be a slow one for me. I would only travel a little over 13 miles.

I set off to fill up the rest of my water in the spring, and was wearing my jacket too, since I thought I was going to stay cold. But not for long.

I immediately regretted wearing a coat, about 10 minutes into my hike up the hill. I stopped at a large boulder to take it off, and finish my coffee.

It was plenty warm out now, and I had to make a stop once again to take off my long sleeve shirt too.

Then I made another yet another stop to roll up my leggings a bit. So many gear adjustments happening, since the temperatures were changing rapidly.

It took about 800 feet of climbing, before I was out of Hauser Canyon, and beneath the Morena Butte.

This was one of the campsites marked on my map, on the way out of Hauser, and it was not very large at all.

This would have to had to feel baking hot, camping here in the late afternoon.

The trail kept climbing over the foothills, toward Lake Morena.

I was extremely tired today, but in good spirits. It was probably since I had not slept well. It was also hot, and I had started late. The sun was shining brightly, and its rays were radiating off the trail.

There were plenty of beautiful flowering trees.

I passed this small creek along the way, for filling up water, about 2 miles up the trail.

The Morena Butte was pretty neat. There were a couple guys hiking behind me, but I lost sight of them. I passed a solo hiker, taking a break in the shade, and would leapfrog him a few times on the way to Lake Morena.

I finally was close to my first stop of the day, Lake Morena, about 5 miles from Hauser Canyon.

By the time I made it to Lake Morena Campground, I was exhausted. I found a spigot right away, in the RV camping area. I filled up my water bottles, filtering it since I heard there is a boil water notice.

Lake Morena is a beautiful spot and this year the lake was at capacity. It would be a neat place to fish or paddleboard around. I plan to come back here again someday.

It was now late in the day, around 12:30 pm, as I debated whether or not to hike on to the Malt Shop down the road. Although a cold beverage sounded nice, I was not hiking the PCT for cold drinks, but to complete Section A. I had a goal in mind, and that was to challenge myself, not fill up on desserts.

I started to realize that each PCT sign was rather unique, and now wished I had photographed more of them.

Time was of the essence, and I felt I needed to use what I had left in the tank to hike on to Boulder Oaks Campground, or possibly further.

I was hiking in the mid-day sun, so I pulled out my umbrella once again. This stretch to Boulder Oaks was very hot. It was in the upper 70’s, and felt hotter than that.

I bid farewell to Lake Morena in the distance.

From here on out it was baking hot all the way. I slowed down my pace again, as much as I tried to make miles, I was really just hurting, and mainly my feet.

With much excitement I made it to yet another milestone, and spotted Cottonwood Creek, winding its way through the valley.

Mountain Lilacs were in bloom everywhere, as I inched closer to where I would make my first big creek crossing, at Cottonwood Creek. I could see the bridge down below, which I would pass under.

I was debating if I would stop by its banks to eat lunch, after filtering water.

But I ultimately decided on pressing on to the spigot at Boulder Oaks Campground, and save my filter from risk of clogging with sediment. This was one of the worst rocky, and uneven sections of the trail by the way. It was slow going since I had to be oh so careful where I put my feet with each step. Avoiding injury was the challenge now.

I was briefly in a shady forest once again, as I came up upon Cottonwood Creek. Long story short, I opted to save time, and take the overpass, instead of doing the whole shoe switcharoo thing, trading trail runners for river sandals, though I would have to do that soon after anyway.

There were several live oaks dotting the trail of this once muddy floodplain, judging from the footprints everywhere.

This narrow stretch of single track trail I hiked, was during the absolute hottest part of the day. I was verging on feeling like passing out, but pressed on.

I was kind of delirious when I finally got through this last mile, and came to Cottonwood Creek once. There was a large group of people with dogs there, who had just crossed. I was too delirious to converse. They did not seem overly friendly either, so no conversation took place. This time, I had to cross Cottonwood Creek, so I put on my Teva Sandals.

Another oak forest awaited my on the other side. I hiked on in my sandals, as I had not much more to go, to Boulder Oaks.

I came to some signage, signalling to me I could finally collapse somewhere. This trail was hard today. The terrain had been awful at times today, and the hot weather, just kinda made it a suckfest. But I was still glad to be doing it, and excited for what more was in store.

I made it to the campground, and noticed a cheerful looking sign for Trail Magic. Since I was not a thru hiker, I did not really consider it applied to me.

After passing the PCT parking area, a girl in hiker attire approached me as I hobbled over to the spigot. She exclaimed cheerfully, “there is trail magic over there,” and pointed the way.

I proceeded to collapse on a picnic table in the shade, near the camp host. I was hot, exhausted, and not sure how much further I could go that day. I glanced over and saw the woman I camped with that morning, who left before me, camped out at the site next door. Were I wanting to stay at Boulder Oaks I could have probably asked them to share in the campsite fees, and pitch a tent there, since sites are usually for up to 8 people.

This is where my determination set in. I found I had cell service, so I called my boyfriend with a status report of where I was on the trail. I reasoned I could keep going on to Mount Laguna, the following day, though I previously was not sure how far I would go. 

I filled up water bottles again, so I had a full 4 liters. My next water fill up spot would be at Long Canyon I reasoned, far up in the hills towards Mount Laguna. After a brief visit to the pit toilets, I was ready to hit the road.

Back on trail, close to sunset, I began hiking through the oaks, before passing under the overpass for the  I-8 freeway. 

I started hiking up a series of switchbacks, which felt baking hot in the afternoon sun. I had resolved I would set an alarm, and aim for an alpine start for the following morning, God willing. Alpine starts are the only way to go, when the weather is hot, if you aim to get in a lot of miles.

In my mind I was having a bit of a battle, since there were two camping spots on the way out of Boulder Oaks on the Far Out map, which I have time enough to reach. I passed on the first one, determined to make it to the second one. However, the thought of the spots being full, was a constant worry.

I began to have thoughts about the campsites being full, and if they were, how it might go if I were to ask to squeeze my tent into a tight area, with other tents. So many scenarios ran through my mind, of searching for a suitable spot, in that event. So I started scouting out possible areas I could backtrack too, if the sites were very full. Non were too pleasing, as it was quite rocky and steep on the way up this hill.

I reached a ridge, and spotted a few tents set up already. My heart sank since I was betting few people would camp here. I was wrong, and there were three people already camped. I scouted around, and was not finding a good spot there. They were too sloped, and not as appealing. Usually backpacker sites have one area people use for the restroom, and you would definitely not want to camp there. 

One of the guys camped, remarked to me that there was a waterfall down the hill. I love waterfalls, but that was the last thing on my mind at this moment. I had literally hiked my heart out today. I was content to take care of the bare essentials at this time, which was to set up my tent, inflate my air mattress, organize my gear, and eat dinner, while there was still light. The scenic and beautiful Kitchen Creek Falls would unfortunately have to wait.

It was sunset soon, and I had made good time. So I looked for a site with a nice view further up the trail preferably with some kind of arrangement of rocks. I did not have to go far, before I found what I considered flat enough, and wide enough to barely squeeze in my one person tent. 

The site was next to a pile of rocks, which could be helpful for leaning my bag against, along with placing my cook stove on. There were an abundance of rocks to place on my tent stakes too. I found the rocks were all too uneven and jagged to sit on, and barely level enough for my stove. But I would have to make it work.

I investigated the site, for snakes, near the rocks and such. The last thing I wanted was to place my tent on top of a rattlesnake nest, or near one.  I was nature camping again, since there was a lot of grass and wildflowers, all around my site.

I set up my tent, and with each rock I picked up, hoped it did not have some venomous creature underneath, such as spiders, or scorpions. I did my best tent set up, so far, being sure to tighten the lines the best I could, and use rocks to make the lines I did not have stakes for, as taught as possible.

My goal was not to have condensation on my head or sleeping bag this time. I even took out my raincoat to wrap the foot of my sleeping bag, which is my new hack. I tuck the arms under the mattress to hold it in place.

I made dinner, which this time was much better than the previous ones. I was realizing this trek would take longer than anticipated, and I did not need the full two portions in the Backpackers Pantry meals. So I took out half of the eggs in one Mountain House breakfast, putting them in a spare sandwich bag. I added half of the Cuban rice and beans to the eggs. This was pretty good, the combo of rice, beans, and eggs.

Sunset was happening, and another day of hiking was done. It was time to clean up the dirt and dust on my ankles and shins with wet wipes and a microfiber towel, to be ready for another day.

I settled into my sleeping bag in my sleeping clothes, just as the first evidence of cool air creeped into my tent. I was still awfully sweaty, from the hike, and felt sticky. My dance pants and synthetic long sleeve shirt made me feel a bit too warm. 

I would sleep through the night, mostly, while tossing and turning as usual. It’s a little tough to sleep on an inflatable pad. The trick for me, is to not inflate the sleeping pad all the way, so if you sit up, you touch the ground, and then the pad molds to you a bit better. A fully inflated pad does not really work for me, since I like to sink into the pad in a more natural way.

The tent flaps were tied back to allow for airflow. I am finding I love that I can see the stars with this Gossamer Gear The One Tent. So long as rain is not in the forecast, I leave the tent flaps open, with the screen flaps zipped shut, to keep out bugs, and critters. I set my alarm for 5:30 am. I hoped I might wake up earlier though.

Read about Day 1 of my PCT hike from Campo to Hauser Canyon here.

Read on about Day 3 of my PCT hike into the Laguna Mountain WIlderness here.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, and it is helpful in knowing what to expect, should you decide to visit here.

About me

I’m Serafina! I’m a writer and California girl who loves to go exploring. Hope you will get outside today, breathe some fresh air, and be happy!

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@serafinabenjamin

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Disclaimer: The work on this blog is my opinion and my opinion alone and I am not responsible for the outcome if someone were to apply these thoughts to their own life. All text and photography copyright 2023 by Serafina, all rights reserved. Information and opinions provided are kept current to the best of the author’s ability. All readers’ usage of the ideas and opinions presented in the blog, are at their own risk. Be aware of the possible dangers of hiking, surfing, walking, cooking, and other activities, which may take place indoors or outdoors. By reading this, you agree not to hold the author or publisher of the content on this web site responsible for any injuries or inconveniences that may result from reading the blog, or partaking in any activity mentioned in the blog. Read the blog, and use its ideas, if you so desire, at your own risk.