On my eighteenth day on the PCT, I climbed up and over the Sierra Pelona range, down into Bouquet Canyon as well as Spunky Canyon, then up again onto the Leona Divide, for a fifteen mile hiking day in the Angeles National Forest.
From PCT mile 459.6 to 474.2 Total: 14.6 miles 4/24
I woke up early, in the dark, as usual. This happens when you fall asleep before sunset. I cooked my oatmeal and ate it while sitting in the tent, wearing my goose down jacket and pants. Very warm and comfy. Then I started packing in earnest. It always takes longer than you think to get ready when backpacking, but my timing was great. I had quite a bit of climbing to do, and getting it done before the sun started roasting me was part of my plan.
The Sierra Pelona Range was partially within the rain shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains, so it wasn’t heavily forested, and was predominantly covered in chaparral and grasses. This year, 2023, was a happy year to be grassy. The seedheads were exceptionally tall, and they were still in the process of ripening. They waved in the breeze and hung over the trail. If I wasn’t wearing long pants they probably would have been tickling my thighs, they were so high. Luckily for me, it wasn’t breezy where I camped, but as I climbed, the breeze grew stronger. I passed by a couple of tents that were shaking in the gusts, and I was thankful that I didn’t have to put away my tent under windy conditions, which is always a challenge.
The sun was out with clear blue skies as I made it to the top of the Sierra Pelona. There were dirt roads up there and obvious signs of motocross and ATV use. It was a Monday morning when I arrived, and all was peaceful. In fact, there was a tent pitched just off the road, and no sign of the occupant. Was I the only early riser out here? Don’t these silly hikers realize that they were Burning Daylight? I guess not. They probably resort to hiking into the evening twilight every day before setting up camp. Oh well. To each his/her own. Meanwhile, I continued onward, along and eventually over the top of the ridge.
Using the Far Out app, I chose “Piped Bear Spring” to be my primary water source for the day. I figure that springs come out of the ground and therefore don’t really require filtering like surface water always does, because they don’t get contaminated with human and animal waste. Sadly, piped Bear Spring had so much water in it that there were lots of small particulates coming out of the pipe. Which I didn’t notice until they were in my gallon water jug, naturally. What a mess! I had to dump it out, rinse it with my remaining pure water, then use my filter. Which immediately clogged, of course. I won’t go on much longer, but it took me forever to clean the filter and clog it again, over and over and over, before I finally collected enough water. I was even more annoyed when I passed a perfectly clear stream a quarter of a mile later. Arrggh! I left a warning comment in the Far Out app to this effect.
After that fiasco, the trail continued pleasantly downward into Bouquet Canyon. This part of the PCT seemed to consist of crossing ridges, which always meant descending into valleys. Up and Down. This sounds worse than it is, because the PCT tended to have a very mellow grade, not more than ten percent, so my hiking speed stayed up.
As I neared the valley floor, another hiker told me to keep an eye out for some trail magic just across the road, which was easy to miss with all the vigorous plant growth this year. He was right, and I was happy. There was an actual chair to rest on, in the shade of a huge oak tree. Plus, there was a half bottle of soda and some granola bars in a chest. Thanks, trail angel! I took a break down there and read my book. The day was warming up and I had another ridge to climb over.
Then it was time to check out the Leona Divide, which was roughly a thousand foot climb. Nothing terrible, in other words. My map said that the PCT would meander along this divide for many miles, and I would be camping on the south side of it later on. This was very dry country, and there were very few trees. Naturally, this meant that there was also no shade. Oh well. I drank my hard-earned water and carried on. The views improved along the way, and soon I was looking down on the Bouquet Reservoir, which was impressive this year. This big pond is used by LA as a backup source in case something temporarily glitches upstream on the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Yes, that aqueduct, the giant pipe that takes water from the Eastern Sierra Nevada and Owens Valley. Tomorrow I would be hiking over Grass Mountain, and the aqueduct itself would be somewhere down below me in a dark tunnel, as the water headed south, bound for LA.
Soon enough, I crested the ridge and Spunky Canyon was before me. What a name! I liked it already. But there wasn’t much happening down there, just a road or two, and the PCT. After crossing the road, the trail began to climb once again. Luckily, by this time I was almost at my planned campsite.
When I arrived, thru hiker Monk was there. He had just acquired his new trail name. I told him that it suited him perfectly, and he liked that very much. He had read in the Far Out app that there were better campsites up on top of a nearby knob, so he said so long and climbed up top to check it out. As for me, well, no need to invade his privacy, I figured, so I set up my tent next to a bush that might give me some late afternoon shade. And it did.
It was still early enough that I simply hung out in the tent for a while. That’s the trouble with getting up early. You get into camp early, too. Or maybe that’s the good thing about getting up early. Anyway, I read my book and almost dozed off. That’s when I decided to cook up my ramen noodles. If I was going to nod off, let it be for the entire night. I read my Kindle while I ate, and sent out a text to Vicki using my InReach, as there was no cell signal here. Spunky Canyon doesn’t get a lot of love from Verizon, I guess. Meanwhile, Monk never came back down, so I figured he was happy up there. And so was I. Another day on the PCT, and another fifteen miles completed.
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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