In the spring of 2013 I was looking for an early-season hike and decided that doing a desert section of the PCT would do the trick. I drove my daughter out to Pitzer College after spring break, and she dropped me off at Lake Morena to do a 110-mile section up to the foothills of the San Jacintos. I had so much fun – not just the hike, but the interesting, funny and weird people I met – that I knew I needed to continue on. I picked up the trail again at Idyllwild (the intervening section was closed due to fire damage) and hiked on to Walker Pass, ending in time to make my way back to Claremont for Leah’s graduation from Pitzer.
There were not nearly so many folks on the trail this time, but I got a chance to revisit mountains and trails that I had hiked in my teens, having lived in Orange County 1967-1978.