Having largely healed up from my 1st adventure, and feeling just a tad wimpy for stopping early, I decided to give at least one more section of the PCT a go. Since snow conditions were excellent for San Jacinto pass, I decided to continue on from where I stopped – Warner Springs at mile 109.
Buses, trains and automobiles. At 5:30pm Sunday, Rose kindly took me to the Stockton train station and I hopped on the 7:23pm train to Bakersfield arriving at midnight
Nice train sunset. Got to lay down on the 2 seats and sleep a little. Arrived on time in Bakersfield and hopped right on the waiting bus. No time for a pic.
The bus arrived in Santa Ana on time at 3:30am. It was wet cold and drizzly. After a 45 minute wait, I Ubered over to Tustin. My best bud Dennis picked me up and took me to the trailhead in Warner springs by 6:30am. This was fantastic, as otherwise it would have taken all day to get there.
Our new friend “Ping”, a fellow PCT hiker took the pic and Dennis provided his first non-Tom related trail magic, and gave Ping a ride to the PO Box. When Ping caught up to me (yea they all catch up to me), he was quite appreciative, and had learned my whole life story from Dennis in their short time together. Ping is a beast of a hiker, easily doing 24 miles a day while carrying an extra set of shoes from the PO Box but not wearing them yet cause “these still got life.”
Very nice gradual start with lots of easy water for the first 5 miles, and in fact for most of the first 20 miles of this leg, every spot that could have water did. That helped reduce the water carry a bit. My initial goal was to camp at the water at mile 10 to 14 for the day, decided it was too hot when I got there, so decided to press on and take lots of breaks.
4 packs left under a bridge. Never found out who owned them
Early signs letting me know I am not lost.
1st 5 to 10 miles very scenic and pretty easy
A rabbit is in there somewhere.
More of the nature stuff I am suppose to show
One of the nice water spots in the 1st 5 miles. Not many spots like this show up in the next 40 miles.
Neat low clouds helped make this a chilly morning, not common at all. I grew to miss it quickly.
1st suspect water at mile 120. Rose suggested I double treat it, lol.
If you went down this path to the water, like I did, you get surrounded by bushes and die. The actual easy path is to the right for .2 of a mile. I eventually found it and drank my fill.
Somehow there is a water cache under these rocks. About 4 miles past the last water. I had planned on camping here, but no good spots existed.
I believe a rattler is in there cleverly hidden. He was not happy with me.
Some steady moderate climbs for the last 5 miles of the day. Was warm, but I had ok water and rested as needed (meaning often, lol)
Finally got to the offshoot to mike’s place. Ping took another photo for me, and off he went, never to be seen (by me) again.
Mike’s place. Very bizarre and no one but hikers present. Weights, skeet shooting equipment, old fancy broke cars, pool table, chess board with no black pieces (not sure if that’s politically correct). Super windy this night, and I did catch up to everyone that passed me. Felt pretty good, but tired. Slept ok.
That ended day 1 of my return. Felt good about getting 18 miles, but need to pace myself and get some recovery time. I arrived at 5:15, which is an 11 hour day.
Tom hikes the PCT 
So glad you are back on the trail again! Just love all your great pics (even the non-nature ones) and good write-ups. Loved your post with PCT map. Going to REI to find good, more detailed, map to have here so we can follow you. Happy trails!
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