5/23/08 - 5/25/08: Pacific Crest Trail, Section C - Crab Flats to I-15 - This section hike started with a little bit of a gloomy weather outlook. This section is planned to be a 4 day and 50+ mile trip. I posted it on the outdoorsclub.org website and had a number of people that signed up initially to join us. But in typical fashion most dropped out over the last two weeks prior to trip date, so we were left with 4 of us to enjoyed this trip. J, David, Deb, and I all met at the McDonalds near the I-15 and SR 138 at 6:45 am to coordinate the car shuttle. Inside McD’s we meet a few through hikers that were having some breakfast, and seemed to be pretty happy due to the fact that it had been raining, windy, and cold on their hike in this morning and during the past day. We left J’s car at the road outside McD’s and put the gear in the back of the truck and headed up the mountain to reach the jump off point at Crab Flats.
As we started up the 138 the rain continued off and on and the sky’s were getting darker. As we passed Silverwood Lake, it seemed we may get a little reprieve and things may turn around as some blue sky were starting to peek through but it was still fairly cold and dropping below 40. As we progressed up the mountain the fog set in and the rain became harder. At points I could not see more then 20 yards in front of the truck, this made for some slow mountain driving! As we pulled into Running Springs to make a last stop before jumping on the trail, the temperature was near 32 and it was snowing! I had a little apprehension about the drive on the forest roads to get to the trail head at Crab Flats, but the drive was only a little slow an muddy in spots but no problems. The area had burned about a year ago and was being cleared by some logging companies. We reached the trail head about 9:30 am with everyone in good spirits and ready to get moving. The snow had let up and the sky was starting to lighten up somewhat so I was hoping we would not get to much snow/rain and things would warms up.
We started on the trail about 9:30 in the morning and the trail was in good shape and for the first day the trail would descend down Holcomb Creek and then turn and drop into Deep Creek. I was glad to be back on the PCT, after not extending my advance on my quest to complete the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail for the past couple of years. I had started my PCT quest in March of 2005 and due to issues beyond my control, had to resort to day outings in the San Jacinto and San Gorgonio 
wildernesses. After about an hour getting into rhythm, the sky started turning dark and a drizzle began to fall. For the next hour it would let up and then began again. Finally by late morning it started a steady drizzle, never letting up. As we progressed down the trail we can across a couple thru-hikers that were under a tarp trying to stay dry. Come to find out, the woman had gotten separated from her two friends the prior day and had to spend the night without cover in this storm. The hiker with her had came upon her earlier in the morning and was helping her with shelter and trying to get her warmed up and back on track. We all had gotten into our rain gear by then, but by lunch, I was soaked through, but with my base layer and shell, stayed warm but damp. The rest of the day was in the fog and drizzle making the areas of burnt forest very surreal. We ran into a couple of thru-hikers that said they had seen a bear down in the ravine of Deep Creek, they claimed it to be about 400 pounds. I have my doubts, I guess I should contact the rangers station about status of bear in the area. I was told that this area was void of bears for many years by a ranger in the San Jacinto’s. As evening started to settle in, we were closing in on Deep Creek Hot Springs, a great destination, but camping at the hot springs is prohibited. As we entered the Hot Springs area, we could see that many other people had the same idea as us to settle in and try to get warm and dry. Breaking into my pack to get the tent, still in a cold light rain, I came to learn that most everything had gotten somewhat wet. I guess lessen learned (again), line the inside of the backpack with a trash compactor bag…. (continued to Part 2)
