April 11, 2019
When Darren and I trekked over 1,800 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2016, we were forced to walk detours around several Southern California fire closures. One area that didn’t have a viable walking detour was on the trail between Palm Springs and Big Bear, California. The 2015 Lake Fire burned over 30,000 acres of the San Bernardino National Forest, and the PCT was closed when we were scheduled to hike there. So my parents offered to drive us around the 26.5-mile closure, and we started hiking north again that year at Onyx Summit, 14 trail miles south of Big Bear.
With our goal in 2019 of finishing the entire Pacific Crest Trail, it also made sense to complete this “missing” piece. It is a challenging section of trail, climbing over 7,000 feet in elevation from the desert sand to the forest snow. The path also traverses through one of our country’s newest (2016) protected areas: Sand to Snow National Monument. Because of the trail’s challenge and its close proximity to our Palm Desert, California home, we made plans to use this as a training hike to shake out our equipment and gauge our fitness for the longer treks to come.
Hiking to the Pacific Crest Trail in the Heat
To access the missing trail, we needed to start at the Mission Creek Preserve and walk 6.4 miles to join the PCT, making our total hiking distance about 33 miles in total. Normally, that would be a reasonable distance for us to cover in two days, but we decided to take three because of the trail conditions. Heavy snowfall this past winter in the Southern California Mountains almost certainly meant we would encounter snow on the trail. And torrential rains in February of this year had damaged much of the lower elevation trail that follows Mission Creek.
Map of the Lake Fire hike
We had another issue to deal with – heat. The forecast called for daytime high temperatures in the mid 90s F. So we left our home early on a Monday morning and took a public bus to the city of Desert Hot Springs. Once we arrived, our plan was to call an Uber to take us the last few miles to our starting point. But we had the great fortune of running into a man who, upon seeing our backpacks, asked what we were doing. After a brief conversation, he offered to drive us to the trailhead, refusing our offer of any gas money. At our destination, we were let off on a dirt road and started walking.
About three miles into our road walk to the PCT, there was an old stone house offering bathrooms and some shade. We walked quickly, on a steadily uphill track, and arrived there in little over an hour. But it was hot, with no shade or any breeze. During the final ten minutes of hiking, I started feeling a little dizzy from our aggressive pace in the heat.
Upon arriving at the stone house, we went inside, and I sat on a wooden bench. I drank an electrolyte drink and ate some food, but it took quite a while for me to feel better. After an hour of rest, we decided to get going again. Fortunately, some cloud cover had formed and a steady breeze was blowing, so it actually felt cooler as we headed out again in the late morning.
Beginning the Water Crossings along Mission Creek
As we continued towards the PCT we marveled at the blooming yucca plants and flowers around us.
Soon we came to our first Mission Creek crossing. The water was only calf to knee level high, but the current was surprisingly swift. In this case a log was in place to assist with the crossing, so we were soon on our way again.
Once we reached the PCT, we almost immediately began seeing other hikers. Most were thru-hikers, having trekked a little over 200 trail miles to this point from the Mexican border. We met another couple around our age who were also finishing sections this year to complete the entire trail.
The trail normally crosses Mission Creek eight times over the next six miles. Because of the February rains, the trail was either highly eroded or totally washed away. We didn’t walk more than five minutes without coming to a point where the trail abruptly stopped. Sometimes it was high above the water’s edge. That required us to figure out how best to climb down to the water. We had to crawl, jump, or even hoist ourselves down at times.
Once at the water’s edge, we needed to find the optimal place to cross the creek, and determine where the trail was located on the other side. This also meant occasionally climbing nearly straight up a hillside to rejoin the path. Having the digital gpx trail to reference on our phones was key to picking up the path on the other side in each case.
We began counting crossings, but soon lost track. In all, we estimated we crossed the creek at least 20 times over the six miles. Our pace was down to just over a mile an hour, and we stopped about four miles into the section to take a break and make dinner in the late afternoon.
We contemplated camping where we were cooking for the night, but the rains had also wiped away many of the creekside campsites. Darren also spied some fresh “cat” tracks, and I was not thrilled about camping so close to a potential mountain lion or bobcat watering hole. So after dinner, we packed up and walked about a mile further up the trail to a high, flat area away from the water and camped there.
From Raging Water to Wind to Fire
The next morning we tackled the final two miles of eroded path and multiple creek crossings before the trail began to climb out of the canyon and towards the mountains in earnest. Even with the steeper path, we made better time than contending with the water crossings. There had been high winds in the weather forecast, and they arrived almost on schedule as we finished eating our lunch at about 6,000 feet.
Over the next 4 1/2 miles, we gained 2,000 feet as we hiked along a ridge in the wind. Several times we had to stop just as a gust came to steady ourselves on the narrow trail. Not acclimated to the increased altitude, we paused periodically to catch our breath as we hiked. The terrain changed from desert plants to oaks and grasses before pines began appearing.
We also began seeing the damage from the 2015 Lake Fire. Many trees were now just black sticks, but it was encouraging to see the bush and grasses that were growing again.
With the fire damage, there were a series of fallen trees to navigate through.
At about 8,000 feet we came upon some snow patches just off the trail. We stopped to filter water at the last source available to us before finishing our hike in 12 more miles.
We ate an early dinner at the water source and then continued about 1 1/2 miles further to find a place to camp for the night. The wind had not abated and it grew very cold as the sun disappeared behind a bank of clouds.
Since we were still in the burn area, we needed to take extra care in choosing a campsite away from any dead burned trees that could fall on us with the wind. Finally, we found a suitable site that had obviously been used by other hikers. We quickly set up our tent and settled in for the night.
A Cold Finish in the Snow
The wind continued to blow heavily all night, making it difficult to sleep. The temperature was also below freezing, as evidenced by our frozen socks that we found on our makeshift clothesline inside our tent the next morning.
We had 10.7 more miles to go to Onyx Summit, where my parents had agreed to meet us. Wanting to make our 3:00 pm pick up with time to spare, we got up early and broke camp. It was still windy and cold, making our hands numb as we began hiking. A huge change from less than 48 hours before when I was overcome by the heat!
With no significant elevation gain or stream crossings to hinder us, we made the best time of our entire trek on this portion of the trail. The only thing that slowed us down slightly was the snow we encountered about 1 1/2 miles into our day’s hike. But because it was early morning, the snow was not mushy, and the tracks of previous hikers made it easy to follow the trail.
Even though some of the snow was on a steep ridge, following the footprints of the previous hikers made the traverse feel safe. We had brought microspikes just in case, but didn’t need them.
After about a mile straight of snow hiking, the trail cleared again. Looking down, we were treated to views of the entire canyon that we had hiked through during the prior two days.
The trail descended slightly, and we picked up the pace. Just a few more sections of snow awaited us before a final climb placed us at Onyx Summit at about 1:50 pm. Our 33-mile hike through the Lake Fire was complete. My parents arrived a short time later and we all spent the night in Big Bear. We arrived home the next day.
The Importance of a Training Hike
Before we set out, we asked ourselves if we really needed a training hike to shake out our equipment. Turns out that we did, as one of our water filters would not work, and we had several other equipment failures, including Darren’s trekking poles (new ones on order as this is being written). We also fine-tuned our food strategy based on some things we tried in the field. Finally, the elevation gain and full-body workout we received in climbing down to and up from the creek provided us with a good sense of our fitness level for the longer hikes we have planned.
Overall, we enjoyed the challenge of the trek, as well as the changing terrain from the desert to the mountains. Dealing successfully with the heat, wind and cold as we hiked from the sand to the snow provided us with additional confidence as we ready for our next trek in just a few weeks’ time: a 200-mile journey on the Arizona Trail, including a rim to rim hike through the Grand Canyon.
We made a short video summarizing our Lake Fire hiking experience. Take a look below.