Trail Day 6: Third Gate water cache (mile 91.2) to Montezuma Rd Crossing (mile 101.2)

10.0 PCT miles

Today was only a half day of hiking for me. In hiker-speak this is called a "nero" or near zero. Usually I would not consider 10 miles "near zero," but part of the nero definition includes spending half the day in town. The plan was to get up really early and make it to the road just passed Barrel Spring before noon. I was going to spend the remainder  of the weekend resting at home.

I woke up at 5 am and was able to pack up and head out of camp before 6 am. As an added bonus, I got to see the sunrise over the mountains. It was really beautiful.  Yesterday I had to tell myself to stop taking so many wildflower pictures,  but today I had to tell myself to stop taking pictures of the sunrise.

Ooo!

Ahhh!

So pretty!

OK, maybe one more.

One more, but with wildflowers.

The scenery started changing again today.  The cacti got much more sparce and the wildflowers were less dense and less abundant. I started seeing more tall grasses and more shrub-like trees. The path wound around the mountain until a new valley came into view.

I was making great time until I ran into a problem. There was a large snake in the middle of the trail. It head was triangle shaped do I looked at the tail, and, sure enough, there was a rattle. I actually said aloud, “That is a rattlesnake.” There was no one else around to hear this assessment.

That is a rattlesnake.

Close up of the rattlesnake head. It is actually quite pretty.

The snake must have been sleeping because I was pretty close to it and it had not gone into its defensive pose. I backtracked to see if there was a route upslope I could take to get around it, and there wasn't. There definitely wasn't one downslope. The snake had to move if I was going to get by.

I decided to try something. I moved towards the snake just close enough that it would sense me. As soon as the head started to move,  I took a bunch of steps back. It pulled its head back, but instead of rattling and going into its defensive coil, it headed into the bushes below. When it had moved far enough off trail, I carefully continued down the path. The snake gave me a fairly passive-aggressive rattle from the bushes below as I walked by.

Pretty soon I hit the small cave along the path. It was just that. A small, man-made cave. I have no idea why someone would put in the effort to make it.

Cave photo op.

After that, I hit the 100 mile mark on the trail.  I almost walked right past it. I took a picture with it, then walked a couple feet down to another, more permanent looking, 100 written out in stones. I took a picture with that as well.

False trail marker.

Real trail marker. 100 miles!

The next mile was all downhill to where the trail actually became shaded with trees. Soon after was Barrel Spring, which had good flow. I contacted my Trail Angel who told me that he was somehow still 2 hours away. I found some shade near the spring and fell asleep to the trickle sounds from the spring water.

Barrel Spring.

When my Trail Angel finally picked me up, we went into Julian to grab a late lunch at Carmen's and check the hiker box to see if my glasses had miraculously made it in there. Oh my God, they had! I was able to recover my $150 sunglasses. The trail works in mysterious ways. I found a pillow at my tentsite last night that I packed-out off the trail. In hopes of keeping the trail karma in my favor, my Trail Angel and I delivered the pillow to Paradise Valley Cafe, a location several hiker boxes away, hoping to reunite it with its owner.

I still can't believe they were in the hiker box!

Carmen's in Julian.