Friday May 23, 24.2mi/39.0km

Robin Bird Spring (246.7/6320ft) to Ridge on Bald Eagle Peak (270.0/6090ft) (CA) +0.9mi to Cold Springs

I slept great in my quiet little spot and hit the trail a little after 7am. It was a little chilly but after a short climb through some meadows I was warm again.

I had a couple hours of gradual descent on the PCT through a cool forest filled with boulders.

Just a nice shady pine forest up here at 6500 ft elevation.

After 6 miIes I turned onto a dirt road to leave the PCT. As I was taking a break, a group of very entertaining hikers stopped to chat with me, and were very curious why I was turning the opposite direction everyone else was. Bison, Wizard Spoon, and 2 others were asking about the Hot Springs Trail, and seemed genuinely interested in the details. Most of them had hiked some combination of AT and CDT, so they’re probably looking for their next trail. They seemed like a high energy and cheerful group and I might see them in a couple days in Lake Isabella. I had a mile walk on a dirt road, this sign made it hilariously clear there was private property along the road.

I left the dirt road to find a dirtbike track, which was easy to find but it didn’t have any signs or numbering. In less than a minute I had to cross a shin deep stream.

It was starting to become a hot day so the water actually felt pretty good.
Plus I had an almost 1,000-ft climb on that dirtbike track before joining up with a bigger dirt road. Looking back on the steep dirtbike track:

From there I hiked uphill a couple more miles on a nice dirt road.

I took a little break at the top where there was a trailhead with some pit toilets. There was a guy parked up there with his family, he offered me water and asked what I was hiking. He wanted to hear more details but he was busy with his toddler children, so we exchanged phone numbers to meet up in town tomorrow. After we each discovered we both had a 585 area code, a long discussion ensued about colleges (Nazareth and RIT), Garbage plates, the Lilac Festival and the Buffalo Bills. Small world.

I hiked on a couple of miles to Cold Springs to fill up my water and stop for lunch.

It’s kind of amazing, it’s completely dry up here on this ridge except this metal pipe has gushing water. a group of dirt bikers stopped by the spring too. They thought I was a lost PCT hiker until I told them I was hiking the Hot Springs Trail, and I showed them my little map. They gave me trail magic! A club sandwich, some kettle chips, and a cold Coors light. I got a group photo of them before they left.

The rest of the day was much quieter. I didn’t see any other people, just expansive views since I was walking on a 7,000 ft ridge.

Mostly it was through a nice pine forest though occasionally it had some burned sections.

Towards the end of the day, I had walked far enough along the ridgeline that I could see down into Lake Isabella.

A couple small clouds moved in and gave the sky a moody feel.

Looking ahead to where the road drops off the ridgeline. I ended up camping in the saddle on the right.

Pretty good views from my campsite!

Tomorrow I have about 16 miles to get to the Lake Isabella RV park where I will be staying tomorrow night. It looks mostly downhill, hopefully it’s an easy day.