… just heard from Trail Boss Don that Trail Angel Mike in Chihuahua Valley now has a pizza oven. Nobo hikers I met over the weekend raved about the pizzas. Not to be outdone, I bought myself a monster outdoor stove. The model is called “Denali Pro 3X.” — It cranks out enough heat to bring two gallons of water to a rolling boil in under five minutes. Now, I’m ready for my Pop-Up Gourmet event. (Rumor has it, the first one may be on Easter Sunday, and may feature grilled lamb.)

I ran into friends Steve and Debi (aka, “Blue Moon”) and their friend Lisa (aka, “Warrior Woman”) at my place just as Steve was dropping them off for a three-day section hike from Anza to Warner Springs. (If you look close, you can see their sigs below, toward the bottom.) Hope to see the three of them back in a few weeks for Celebrate Anza 2016.

As usual, I recorded all the signatures I have accumulated on my trail register as of Sunday, March 20, at around 5pm.

I heard from Chip and Vicky, the stewards who stock Anza’s main water cache at PCT mile 143, that the cache is back in operation as of Sunday, March 20, so I had to ride Gracie down to check it out. (Gracie appears more interested in the nibbles of fresh grass in front of the cache.)

My Little Free Library continues to be quite the hit with hikers, judging by the volume of books disappearing each week. The title that is (far and away) the most popular: Thoreau’s Walden. — I’ve already gone through the six copies I purchased to stock the library … for the whole year! At five bucks a pop (for the cheapest paperback of Walden on amazon), not sure whether I can keep this up.

If anyone out there has copies of Walden they would like to donate (or would like to chip in to purchase a bunch more copies), please contact me at pct145trailangelmary@gmail.com.

Sunday’s weather forecast called for lots of rain, so my hiking companion bailed.

Well, Anza weather is hard to predict. It turned out to be foggy/drizzly in the morning, then clearing in the afternoon. — Perfect weather for hiking. So, I did the planned hike any. (This was a recon hike for a possible public event sponsored by the ABF.) I opted to do PCT north to “Anza’s Grand Canyon,” then back with a couple side hikes down Alkali Wash and up to the summit (such as it is) of Table Mountain. Got some nice photos for a booklet I’m working on about the flora in the Table Mountain area of Eastern Anza. Also took a few other photos showing the variety of interpretative subjects on this hike.

First, here’s the route:

(The hike is in yellow, with the PCT shown in background in red.)

And here’s some cool pictures:

We had off-and-on rain clouds in Anza on Sunday. I caught a photo of a rainbow during the brief few minutes of its existence. This picture was taken from the building pad on my property looking west, toward Terwilliger Valley.

Before dinner at my place on Saturday night, Bob surprised the group with what may become a regular feature of the Anza February work event: the Pulaski Ceremony.

I placed mine in a place of honor above my PCTA recognition letter.

— Thanks, Bob! What a great idea. ~m

On February 18-22, the PCTA Trail Gorillas held the annual five-day trail work event, focusing on a section of trail that will be part of a temporary reroute around the area damaged by the Mountain Fire. Here is a video of a few of the guys — including our fearless leader, Don — working on a rock that would be a problem for equestrians. Looks like fun, doesn’t it?!

The work day offered other types of activities, including choosing the location for the new rerouted signs. — Now, that’s more my style.

 

Well, it appears that the Annual Day Zero PCT Kick-Off event has been cancelled for 2016 because of bureaucratic issues with San Diego County Parks, leaving me with no clear date for my Celebrate Anza event, which has traditionally* followed ADZPCTKO by a week — just about the time that the bulk of the thru hikers who start from the border for ADZPCTKO have hiked 145 miles to my place. What to do? With the heavy snow pack in the Sierra, should I assume thru hikers will be starting later than in the past couple years? With the (already) hot temperatures in SoCal, should I hold the event at its usual time (the first weekend in May), or even earlier, on the theory that hikers will be starting earlier than usual? I’ve already met a few thru hikers who started very early (but were planning on taking time off before hitting the Sierra). Stay tuned.

* “Traditionally” is a bit of a stretch, considering that 2016 will only be the third Celebrate Anza I have hosted for thru hikers on my property.