#scissors crossing

Just north of Scissors Crossing as the PCT enters the San Felipe Hills, Howard and I experienced a Super Bloom in April, 2017. The arid hills were alive that year. I had walked the same stretch at the same time of the year in 2012 and this is what it looked like that year.

新芝浦駅 SHIN-SHIBAURA Station

＊徒歩にて散策、撮影

東京出張の休日日記 その19

In April 2017, Howard and I walked from Campo to Pines-to-Palms together.  He continued on to Cajon Pass but I headed to Los Angeles to visit my daughter and then on home.  I had walked this stretch once before during a very hot April that had followed a very dry winter. This time the weather was delightful and followed a wet winter.  What a difference.

The photo above was taken as we crossed the meadows south of Eagle Rock near Warner Springs.

Even more spectacular were the San Felipe Hills.  The photo above looks back toward Granite Mountain and Scissors Crossing.  The desert was nothing short of amazing . . . a xeric garden.

The yellow flowers of the barrel cactus, the light purple of the prickly pear, and the reds of the spindly ocotillo.  The ocotillo which means ‘little torch’ in Spanish, is also known by many other names including Flaming Sword, Jacob's Staff, Desert Coral, Candlewood, Vine Cactus, and Coachwhip. Ocotillo branches can reach heights up to 20-feet and can live up to 60 years.

by Rees Hughes

Mom’s Pie House in Julian is almost by itself worthy of the 12-mile detour from the trail.  Armed with your thru-hiking PCT permit, Mom’s welcomes hikers with a free piece of pie a la mode (with coffee it you wish). Although apple is their ‘claim to fame’, they bake six non-apple varieties of pie.

Although gold was initially discovered in the Julian area in 1870, the enduring source of economic health has been apples (which has attracted tourists for years). At 4,200′ elevation, Julian proved to be a fine place to grow apples. Julian apples, “Twenty-one varieties of well grown and carefully selected apples”, received top honors from the American Pomological Society at the 1907 Tri-centennial Exposition held in Virginia. That tradition has continued since and now visitors come for the fruit, for homemade cider, and the pies.

Behind ‘Mom’s’ there really is a mother . . . according to the website, “She’s lived in Julian for the past 38 years and counting.  She’s raised four wonderful children, all of whom graduated from Julian High School, and worked at the shop to earn enough "dough" for college.“

I enjoyed my piece of pie with my hiking partner of many, many years, Howard a few years ago . . . after hitchhiking up from Scissors Crossing.  It is one of the tastiest of PCT traditions (rivaled, of course, by the bakery in Stehekin, the brunch at Timberline Lodge, and, if you are lucky, dinner at Drakesbad).

Our review of PCT traditions will continue with another culinary tradition . . . the bakery in Stehekin.

Alpine Lakes

David ‘Whitebeard’ Reneau sent us some spectacular photos from his seven years of section-hiking the PCT.  He began his quest in 2009 with a 50-mile hike through the Marble Mountains of Northern California.   After retiring in 2012, he began his multi-year thru hike completing the trail in 2016.  I particularly was partial to some of this lake photos, a subject matter underrepresented in PCT photos.  I will share a couple in this post and some more in another week.  Consider sending us some of your PCT lake photos . . . ([email protected])

I met Dave in the refreshing shade under the highway bridge at Scissors Crossing in 2012. The scene of everyone seeking refuge there will forever be indelibly imprinted in my memory.  Despite getting up at first light, that walk south through the San Felipe Hills in the pounding heat of that day had been brutal.  Dave, and his hiking partners Don and Tony, were waiting for some relief from the blistering heat of the day before pushing north.

I did that walk from the border to the San Jacintos again a few years later in much different conditions . . . temperate weather accompanied by a spectacular bloom of desert flowers. I'm glad the San Felipes and Scissors Crossing got a second chance to make an impression.

It is unlikely that Toronto’s winter has prepared Matt Azevedo for the heat and sun of the Southern California stretches of the PCT . . . even in the relative coolness of late March and early April.   But, he is on the trail working his way north. 

Back home, Matt is a photographer and I always appreciate the PCT as seen through the eye of a photographer. We’ll check in with him over time as he continues to move ahead. You can also follow his blog at:

https://mattazevedo.wordpress.com/

He tells me that he is “hiking the PCT to explore the mountains and reflect”.

Looking from the Lagunas north toward Granite Mountain, Scissors Crossing, and the San Felipe Hills . . . it is a ‘big sky’ landscape that the panorama struggles to capture.  At a minimum, double click on the image and scroll across to see the full image.  Even better . . . take an early season walk in this area.  (Photo taken on April 8, 2017)

Nearby Kwaaymii Point serves as a reminder of the Native Americans who once inhabited the Lagunas. In 1989 the last full-blooded Kwaaymii died on the nearby 320-acre Lucas Ranch, once the home of Kwaaymii tribe members.  the Kwaaymii lived high in the Laguna Mountains most of the year and moved their entire village to the desert during the coldest winter months.  Sadly, little remains aside from artifacts and the eponymous Point.

On my first time along the PCT, I elected to make the shorter hitch from Sccissors Crossing to the Stagecoach RV Park for some uncomplicated rest and rejuvenation.  This year I headed for Julian, a longer but far prettier jaunt back into civilization some 12 miles east of Scissors Crossing.  Although often overrun with tourists on the weekend (which can be a bit jarring), it is an inviting trail town most known for its apple pie.

Carmen, who runs a restaurant of the same name in town, has been wonderful welcoming to PCT hikers.  The deck of her cafe has become a hiker haven after hours (see photo above). More upscale accommodation is also available in town should you want to clean up and sleep on a bed with sheets.

Not a bad introduction to the amenities of trail towns.

It is worth noting that Julian really did not come to be until gold was discovered in Coleman Creek, just west of contemporary Julian. This was at the very end of 1869 and beginning of 1870.  While the miners were trying to wrestle the gold from deep within the earth, a wagon load of young apple trees were brought into the mountains. The fruit trees flourished in the clear, fresh air and have had a far more enduring impact on the community than the short-lived gold rush.

Photo credits: Ryan Goggin (top 2 photos) . . . https://ryangoggin.com/