Coyotes, rattle snakes, and horny toads

I'm laying in the tent with Chris right now. The bushes and trees outside are alive. There's a little spring nearby where the frogs are harmonizing, up on the slope it sounds like a scene from a Redwall book with warring racoons and who knows what else.
After Moreno Lake on the 27th we hiked through unexploded bomb territory, rose up into Pine Valley, crossed Highway 8, and worked our way around into Long Canyon. The views from Thing Road and the trail beyond it were spectacular. Chris caught his first horny toad of thr hike. We put in 17 miles that day and camped by Long Canyon Creek. On the 28th we hit our first patches of snow heading up to Mt. Laguna. It started out as just a little, but pretty soon I was high stepping, trying to avoid getting my socks wet. I found a red pack spoon in the snow. The tiny town of Mt. Laguna was only a quarter mile off trail, at the general store we got some good trail info from Jon, one of the brothers who owns the place. We ate as much fresh fruit, hot pockets, and chips and salsa as our stomachs could handle. Our SPOT GPS signal from the night before didn't go out, so we had a slough of worried messages from our parents when we turned on our phones. The snow subsided as we broke out of the trees and came out over the Anza Borrego Desert. We saw the many biomes of the Cleveland National Forest all in one day. At our camp, the end of a 16.5 mile day, we met our first Trail Angels, Ole Miller and his wife, who had a trunk full of water for us, and tips on where other stashes were down the line. A former professor and school teacher, Ole Miller now spent time enjoying the local scenery and lending valuable aid to all of us crazy PCT hikers.
We had to really put the miles on on the 29th. We hiked 25 miles, all in the heat of the desert, having to make a few frustrating and excruciating detours around private land. At one point we hung down into a fire reserve cistern to filter some precious water. Finally we dropped down from Granite Mountain into the valley, three miles West from Julian, a town famous for its apple pies. Although we each could have had a pie to ourselves, six bonus miles were not in the works. We camped in the middle of the valley, between two roads and another PCT water stash. The night was nerve-racking. The coyote yips first started from the north, then more came in from the south. We pulled in whatever we could to our tents, and kept our headlamps pointed at the bushes. The yips got closer. Soon there were some coming from the west and the northeast. Coyotes were seemingly everywhere around us, and we couldn't gauge how many there were. They aren't naturally aggressive animals, and don't often exceed 40 pounds, but the sheer numbers put us on edge. When dawn broke, all was well. The coyotes never got closer than the other side of the nearest bushes.
This morning we had to tackle Grapevine Mountain and cross over into the next valley where the town of Warner Springs is located. The camp spot we aimed for wasn't that far as the bird flies, but on trail it was a grueling 24 miles of steady rising and falling switchbacks under the cruel desert sun. We had to dig deep today. At first the trail design seemed sadistic, as a short, steep switchbacks over the ridge would have saved a dozen miles on the mountain slope. I realized that this stage is meant to be a test. Of the people who quit the hike early, most do so in Warner Springs, a total of just over 100 miles into the trek. If you can deal with the heat, the insensibility of the trail, the desert, and all of the treats that come with it, then you can and should keep on going. We were all hurting today, the blisters on our feet are fresh, backs hurt, sunburns sting, and we even encountered our first rattlesnake. They sound just like they do in the movies. Chris passed it first and caught it's attention, and Ryan and I had to slide down the skree a bit to pay it a wide enough berth. We came across another PCT hiker, Free Range, she's from Davis and is just section hiking from the border to Warner Springs. We made it the 24 miles we intended today, finishing in exhaustion and near delirium, but, save for the possibility that we get picked apart by foxes in the next five hours, we should make it into Warner Springs around noon. We'll have hamburgers. We will have beer. And, the next day, we will keep on walking. We passed the test today.