PCT 2024 Section G Day 4 – Ye Old Fox Mill Spring

Goal for the day: Get past Chimney Creek

I woke to some nice light from the sun and noticed the PCT hikers below had increased in number overnight. Hiking during the dark hours is one way to increase daily mileage when hiking in the desert. Much like my alternate plan to start from Walker Pass before dawn, sometimes you want to take advantage of cooler nighttime temperatures.

I enjoyed the sunrise as I ate breakfast and packed up my gear.

I was excited by the fact that the hike along the ridge line would be in the cooler morning, plus seemed like it would be shielded from the sun by the ridge and tree cover.

The PCT snaked along the edge of the ridge looking down on the valley I’d have to descend into to reach Chimney Creek.

I reached a ‘corner’ where the trail would turn to run along another ridge line and took a break to admire the view. This was a possible destination for the previous night and I confirmed that it would have been a great spot to camp. It had some great views in all directions, including down into Owens Valley. Shame I couldn’t push to reach this spot the prior evening, but it would likely have been after sunset before I could have reached it after how long it had taken me to climb up to the ridge the previous day.

After a brief break, I continued a down along the other ridge line, still glad for the ridge and trees blocking the sun well into the morning.

Then, a movement from the trail in front of my boot startled me.

Snake!

I jumped back as the snake slithered off the trail. It was brown and had a diamond pattern running down its back. Could be a Rattlesnake. I backed up cautiously, then took a couple of quick pictures for prosperity (hopefully not posthumously).

After making sure it was out of the way, I carefully made my way past that area and resumed my hike.

Only later when I had a chance to look at the pictures did I notice the absence of a rattle on the snake’s tail. It was probably an harmless Gopher Snake. Better safe than sorry.

Not too much later, a woman passed me on the trail. It was the same woman who had already passed me twice since I started from Walker Pass. Deja vu. Apparently, she had been camping back off trail at the corner with the view and also liked to sleep in. Passing each other three times was unique enough that we finally exchanged trail names. Double Take and WanderingJim (although I have a tendency to just introduce myself as ‘Jim’ on the trail.

We were obviously leap-frogging each other on the trail. Not the first time that has happened to me and not too surprising when a lot of people used the same trail over the course of a hiking season. The PCT and JMT were VERY popular trails.

Sadly, the trail started descending from the ridge and the trees started to grow sparse. This led to less and less shade as the hike moved into the afternoon. It would be a long, water-less, and hot afternoon for me. I tried to ration the remaining water I had carefully to last all the way to Chimney Creek.

I had not yet made it to the creek in the late afternoon when I sucked on my water bladder’s hose and got nothing. Out of water.

After chatting with a thru hiker tending to his blistered feet, I finally found a sign of civilization in the sign of garbage hanging in a tree.

Since there were roads to the Chimney Creek area, this was a disappointing sign of non-hikers (most, but not all, thru and section hikers are pretty good about carrying their trash out of the wilderness).

But it did tell me I was close and not long after I finally made it to Chimney Creek. I quickly filtered my first liter of water and was able to taste the sweet taste of cold water. On my lips, in my stomach, and on my head and chest courtesy of dipping my hat and shirt into the cool stream. Fortunately, I hadn’t had to go that far without water by the time I reached this stream.

But the water didn’t help replenish the stamina and the willpower I had lost durign tyhe long, hot day to continue this hike.

Chimney Creek was next to a road that led from the area, past Chimney Creek Campground and up to Kennedy Meadows Road.

For long distance hikers this is known as ‘temptation’.

I was ready to give into that temptation and abort my hike. Going past the creek, I found a cache of water, a few pepperoni pieces, and some hiker trash left for whatever Trail Angel had left the cache. I was a little curious why water was needed to be cached here due to the closeness of a running creek, but my tired body didn’t really care to ponder that.

I didn’t see any cars on the road or up at the drive-in campground. A pit toilet at the campground was enticing, but I didn’t really need to ‘go’ badly enough to hike a half mile or so to it. Instead, I started to survey the area for campsites in hope that maybe a car would come by that evening or the next morning. Temptation still tugged at my willpower.

Somehow, I found myself ignoring some not-that-level camping tent pads near the road, and continued up the PCT to find a better tent site. Still willing to give into the temptations of the road to civilization.

But not willing enough to hike the 4 miles up the road to reach the Kennedy Meadows road (and almost a guaranteed passing car to get a ride from) myself.

Again, seeing a lack of cars and activity at the drive in campground, I continued climbing up the ridge leading further away from that temptation.

Before long, I was just continuing until a good camping spot presented itself. I even dumped a little of the extra water I had gathered at Chimney Creek in anticipation of camping in that area. The next water on the trail was the Old Fox Mill Spring that was 2 miles from Chimney Creek.

Somehow (and I’m still not sure how, why, or when), I had overcome the temptation to abort and continued up the trail.

A few spots big enough for my tent presented themselves, but were covered in animal prints. Even if they were too big for a adult bear, I decided not to tempt fate and again pushed myself upward towards the old Fox Mill Spring where according to my trail info many campsites awaited.

Then I saw a bear on the trail!!

Although, it looked like a petrified bear from the last ice age.

I chuckled at the appearance of the boulder, amazed that there was no mention in the trail info about this uniquely shaped boulder. Like the Rock Monster of Le Conte Canyon on the JMT (PCT section H), I’d have thought some lore may have emerged over the years of PCT hikers passing this unique boulder.

I continued past the ‘bear’ and reached the Fox Mill spring. The spring itself was dry, but a creek behind it would provide life giving water to the many hikers that passed this point.

Having enough water for cooking that evening, I ignored the water for now and focused on finding a good campsite. My trail info indicated some nice campsites above the trail opposite the spring.

Climbing up, I soon found some ruins of the old Fox Mill (obviously where the spring got its name (or the other way around since water would be precious to any one operating a mill in the dry environment)).

There were some very well maintained tent pads, fire rings, and even benches made out of the pieces of the old mill. Water, some views of the area, and a place to sit comfortably as I cooked dinner. Without any reason to look further, I setup my tent and enjoyed dinner under the evening skies.

No direct view of the sun when it finally set, but enough light to enjoy it nonetheless.