This post originally appeared on The Trek, which you can read here.

*these posts are coming straight from trail, I apologize in advance for typos!*

Day 10: April 17, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: San Ysidro Creek – 105.0
End: Tent site – 115.0
Miles: 10.0
Ascent: 991 | Descent: 1111
Sleep: Tent

Today was our first chilly day on trail. It kind of made me miss the sun… I think whatever weather it currently is, I just want the opposite of that. It rained over night, thankfully we had the tent set up well and it did a good job keeping us dry. Sleeping next the the creek was lovely and we fell asleep listening to the water and bullfrogs.

We woke up to a drizzly cold morning. It has hard to find motivation to get going since the weather was gross. I reminded myself that I have hiked through much worse conditions, but I still didn’t want to get out of my sleeping bag. Once we finally got moving we were on trail around 8am.

It misted on and off throughout the morning and I hiked in my Frog Toggs for the first several miles. We all made it to Eagal Rock together which was really impressive. I had obviously seen pictures of it, but I always thought it was in the middle of the desert. The area we’ve been in the last few days has been mainly green pastures and rolling hills, so it made this humongous rock stand out even more dramatically. I would have liked to have sat by the rock for a while since it is such a special place, but I was cold and decided to keep moving.

The trail to Warner Springs turned lush and green just a couple of miles from town. We followed and creek and there were large oak and sycamore trees all around. It reminded me of hiking through the gentle pastures of Virginia.

We arrived in the small town of Warner Springs and went to the community resource center. I was blown away by the generosity of the town and the fact that they run this huge operation just for hikers! There was resupply stuff, a hot shower, laundry, and tons of charging ports. They even had a variety of frozen food hikers could heat up and drinks all for a reasonable price.

Pimento, Hangman, and I got a with Hanz to the post office to retrieve our boxes. We wandered over to the gas station to pick up some drinks and locally made hot dogs to take back to our friends. Once back at the community center, we enjoyed our hot dogs and started dividing up our resupply boxes.

Truffles and I must have thought we’d be starving based on all the food we packed for ourselves. Our food bags are super heavy now, but we don’t have to resupply for a while. We hung out at the community center for hours hoping the weather would clear and the sun would come out. It never warmed up but at least we got to dry our tent out and charge our electrics.

We finally left Warner Springs around 3:30pm and wanted to hiked 5ish miles out of town. Neve and Late are traveling with us and the miles passed quickly and easy. I was worried I’d feel slow with so much extra food, but the terrain was easy and we made quick work of it.

We arrived at camp and set up the tents before circling up for dinner. It’s cold again tonight so I’m grateful to be snuggled up in my sleeping bag. Hoping the weather is a little warmer tomorrow!

Day 11: April 18, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Tent site – 115.0
End: Mike’s Place – 126.9
Miles: 11.9
Ascent: 2616 | Descent: 761
Sleep: Tent

Today is Truffle’s 30th birthday! I woke him up to sing “happy birthday” to him in bed. When he emerged from the tent, the rest of the group sang to him again and gave him the “presents” (aka food) we packed out for him. We took our time leaving camp and were on trail by 8:45am.

The majority of the trail today was uphill. It was graded well so it was a gentle climb all day. The miles went back quickly and we warmed up while hiking hard. We stopped after 4ish miles to find a birthday surprise: Barbra had written Truffles a birthday message by the trail in rocks! We took lots of posted and enjoyed some snacks.

The only issue with stopping today was that since it was chilly, we got really cold sitting still. The wind continued throughout the day and the temperature dropped as the day wore on. The only way to stay warm was to keep moving, so we didn’t take many breaks throughout the day.

We finally arrived at the junction to Mike’s Place. We saw Luke and Shaunie at the water tank and decided to go check out the “accommodations”. I had seen on FarOut that Mike’s Place was pretty rundown, and that would be putting it mildly. There were multiple dilapidated buildings and broken down cars strewn about the yard.

We saw other packs on the porch but there were no hikers in sight. Puzzled, we knocked on the front door and were welcome inside to find a roaring fire and a group of hikers. Mike’s friend, Scott, was hosting hikers and had Mock whipping up spaghetti for everyone. We were happy to warm up by the fire and were some of the luck few that got spaghetti.

After a couple of hours some other “trail angels” showed up and promised a feast. Unfortunately they said that in order to cook we’d all have to get out of the house, so we went back out into the cold to set up the tents. The trial angels left and said they’d be back in a little bit, but they never returned…

We were all pretty disappointed and cold, but tried to make the best of the evening. A group of 20 or so hikers huddled on the back porch out of the wind to cook dinner and socialize. It ended up being a good evening despite the let downs and the bad weather. The forecast looks better for tomorrow, it should be warmer with a little more sun.

Day 12: April 19, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Mike’s Place – 126.9
End: Little Bear Hostel – 145.2
Miles: 18.3
Ascent: 2331 | Descent: 2995
Sleep: Tent

Today may have been one of my favorite days scenery wise on trail so far. Our evening last night was cold and wet, but thankfully we stayed dry and relatively warm. We were happy to wake up to clear skies and though it was still chilly the weather was significantly better than yesterday.

We were slow to get going but managed to be hiking around 7:45am. The sun was shinning and it was still windy, but we were feeling good and happy to be moving. We all hiked together out of Mike’s Place and tackled the first climb of the day. Along the ran I ran into Kyle from LA and we talked for a bit about what brought us to trail.

I hiked on and off all day with different members of our group. I chatted with Hangman for a while before Truffles caught up. The morning flew by and before I knew it we were at the water source 10 miles in. FarOur comments said the water was gross and thankfully we had carried plenty to last most of the day. We wanted to stop somewhere for lunch but decided to biked a bit further to find some shade.

We eventually came upon a nice little patch of shade that was big enough for us all the spread out. Neve has been hiking with us since Julian and Gooey comes and goes. The 6 of us enjoyed a lovely lunch in the shade and started hiking again around 1pm.

The trail climbed up pretty quickly and we all felt sluggish after lunch. It also got significantly hotter so I pulled out my Sunbrella. Around mile 12 we came to a junction where there were trail angles about a mile off trail. As a group we debated on if it was worth the extra miles to go and ultimately decided to press on to our campsite for the evening.

I loved the views today because we could see mountains way out in front of us but also rolling hills close by. There were red and white rocks of carrying sizes all over, and there were dramatic cliffs and rugged rock faces. I thought it was absolutely beautiful and really enjoyed the scenery.

About 3 miles out form our destination we crested a ridge and saw an umbrella with hikers gathered around it. Trail magic! We bounded up the hill and were greeted by Meg and Chris from LA who are planning to open a hiker hostel next year. In the mean time they do trail magic from their nearby property and were out for the day passing out cold drinks and homemade sandwiches. We sat and hung out with them for a while before packing out some food for the road and continuing on.

The last bit of trail to Little Bear Hostel felt like it took forever, but we ran into Like and Corby who said the hostel was absolutely worth a visit. We left the trail and followed the pink ribbons down into a residential area and eventually made it to Little Bear. What a lovely place! There was a huge space for tenting and we were some of the lucky few who got to sit in the patio chairs on the back porch.

We sat around petting the dog and cat and chatting with Tristian, Ryan, Night Bird, Shaunie, Victor, Late, Neve, and the couple from Montana. The owner of the hostel overheard us talking about bourbon and brought out a couple bottles for everyone to share. Victor gave a belated birthday toast to Truffles (“the first of his name”). We sat around for a bit laughing and dreaming about what food we’ll all have at Paradise Valley Cafe in the morning. A really good day on trail!