After discovering that my hiking boots were delaminating, I decided to hike three miles to Scissors Crossing where I could get a ride back home to buy new boots. I wasn’t happy about this, but feet are of paramount importance when thru hiking the PCT. Call it a Footmergency, if you will.
From PCT mile 74.4 to 77.3 Total: 2.9 miles 4/3
I woke up that morning and lounged inside of the tent for a while. There was no rush, as Vicki would take two hours to get to the crossing. We were very familiar with Scissors Crossing, having hiked to/from there thrice in the past: Once twelve years ago when climbing Granite Mountain, and twice ten years ago in 2013, heading north from Lake Cuyamaca and then heading south from Ranchita. It was also on the main driving route to the lower Anza-Borrego Desert, so we passed through there quite often during the Winter and Spring seasons. We occasionally gave PCT Hikers rides to Julian, too! I didn’t even bother cooking up any oatmeal this time. I was heading home early, so I simply repurposed one of my lunchtime Pop-Tarts, then chased it with a Cosmic Brownie. I love starting my day with a sugar rush. Gets the blood pumping!
The weather was looking a bit unsettled. The forecast was for yet another stormy event. Would the infamous Winter of 2023 ever relent? It seemed unlikely. Out here in the desert they were mostly predicting a lot of wind, not rain. But that wouldn’t be my problem. Meanwhile, the clouds that morning were quite lovely. I finished packing up and started hiking along the sandy, level trail, which gradually sloped down to the crossing. San Felipe Creek flowed through a narrow gorge into the lower desert near there.
It was an easy and cruisey hike. I only had to dump the debris out of my damaged boot a few times, mostly when the trail turned into deep sand. The sand wasn’t terrible by itself, but a few pebbles tended to lurk under the surface and strike when I least expected it. Then I had to sit down (avoiding cactus thorns) and fix the problem. I was glad that it was only three miles to the road. Meanwhile, there were excellent views, both behind me to Granite Mountain and before me to the San Felipe Hills.
After reaching Highway S-2, the trail turned left and paralleled it for another mile. Where the road met Highway 78 was the official trailhead parking lot. The two roads crossed at a narrow angle on the map, reminiscent of a pair of scissors, hence the name.
It wasn’t long before I reached the bridge on Highway 78. San Felipe Creek flows under it. When it flows, that is. Mostly it’s just a large dry wash. For many years now, there has been a major PCT water cache under there. This spot is crucial to thru hikers, as the nearest water is over a dozen miles away. Supposedly, earlier that season the creek had a flash flood event, and all of the water jugs had been swept away. Luckily, the Trail Angel in charge of this section came to the rescue and got everything restored in time for the first thru hikers in March.
When I arrived, there were already several hikers present. Most of them had resupplied in Julian, which was just up the mountain to the west, and others were getting ready to hitch hike to Julian. Some were planning on resupplying further north in Warner Springs and didn’t care about Julian. For them, the water cache was important. One young man I met told me that he was carrying a pound of weed in his backpack! He showed it to me, too. It seemed to me that carrying money would be a lot lighter, since you can buy weed legally anywhere along the PCT, but to each his own. Personally, I would prefer to spend that pound of weight on an air mattress.
When Vicki arrived, about an hour later, another hiker decided to get a ride with us to Julian rather than hitchhike on the highway. We dropped him off right in front of Mom’s Apple Pies and told him about the free slice special. He was thankful for that info. We wished him well, and then we drove on home to San Diego.
Later on that day, I drove over to REI and bought myself some new hiking boots. I decided to go up a half-size, as well, because I noticed that I had already gotten a couple of black toenails, a sure sign of too-small shoes. But I didn’t change brands. Merrell Moab shoes have been my go-to boot for years, and this was the first time that they had ever let me down. I’m thinking that it was the prolonged soaking during the first two days out of Campo that caused the trouble, but we’ll never know.
Then I spent the next couple of days re-configuring my hiking plans, and waiting out the current storm. No sense in being hasty. Especially with all that snow just ahead of me. I wasn’t in a rush. Having fun was the ultimate goal, after all. To be honest: Being home with Vicki was almost too comfortable and relaxing. But I could handle that.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
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