Day 8 – Scissor’s Crossing to 3rd Gate Water Cache

April 23, 2016: Greg and I said goodbye to Lorian at around 6 am and crossed the street from the Appletree to hitch to Scissor’s Crossing. We didn’t wait long when two cars pulled over -each carrying a young enthusiastic female hiker setting out to drop one of the cars at Scissor’s Crossing as they were planning to section hike up to that point soon. My ride was with Jamie, who wanted to hear all about the hike and was thrilled to know I was thru hiking the trail. The gorgeous 40 minute drive from Julian melted away. The ladies parked one of their cars at the crossing and they both jumped in the other with hearty goodbyes.

A storm had moved through the desert and cooled the temps to a very tolerable level as we started winding back up into the desert mountains. Still in view of the highway, I told Greg to hike ahead as I took advantage of dwindling cell service to arrange for my new pack to be delivered to Idyllwild. I also ate breakfast and made a nice cup of coffee in a wind-sheltered nook. It was, in all, a beautiful morning.

Hiked alone, leapfrogging Luis and Vivian and made the water cache at the third gate in the late afternoon. It was a day of desert climbing and I was ready to pitch camp among the only high bushes for miles. Thought it was the spot Greg was headed to to join up with Pine, but neither were there. Oh well – no doubt will see them later on the trail…