Day 10- April 29th

Man today was so nice! What a difference between walking 18 miles and siting on my butt doing not much at all! 

The resource center at Warner Springs continues to be awesome! Claire and I patched up our blisters, and then ate some breakfast consisting of a huge bag of yummy granola that some hiker left in the hiker box. Then we rinsed out some of our dirty clothes and hung them to dry on the fence.

Quickest dryer ever!! 

An hour later we hitched a ride 1.4 miles down to the Post Office. (Yes I know that 1.4 isn't that far to walk but it's our zero day, not our 2.8 mile day!!

We got to the PO and excitedly went in to receive our cookies that our friend Christine had sent us. Sadly, they weren't there. :( I sent her a message and she said she would find out what happened.

We went into the next door country club restaurant and oh man we ate! I got a $12 cobb salad and was very pleased when this showed up:

Claire had ordered a smaller salad, and then we got a 12 inch pizza!! Yeah, we ate! We saw a bunch of people there and  had some good food over some good company.

Claire, Patrick, Daniel, and I. (I know, selfie game strong with this one)

At the restaurant I called Dave from Laguna to tell him about the broken stove. He was so nice about it and said he'd send me a better one to Idylwild (71 miles away) and it would get there by Monday! :)

After that we hitched back to te resource center and we had a package! Crystine had driven to Warner springs, located the missing package, and came looking for us at the Center to personally deliver it! We missed her since we were still at the restaurant...

Thanks Crystine!!!

For dinner the school was having another special; this time, a taco, beans, and chips for $4! Everyone was stoked and the tacos went down fast!

Typical hiker table! Claire, Ben and John on left. Orion on the right.

We last saw Orion about 4 days ago, and we were glad when we saw him stroll into town earlier today! 

Yay Orion!

Well after another Epsom salt foot massage bath (so spoiled), a liiiitle more blister care, and one of the awesome cookies that Crystine sent, we are prepped for bed and well rested. We're ready to hit the day early tomorrow, crossing fingers for non-swollen blisters.. 71 miles to Idylwild!

-Thanks for reading! 

Day 9- April 28th

Wow Wow wow! Today was suuuuuuch a better day than yesterday! Thanks for all your good vibes everyone! I want to just blurt out all the awesome accomplishments right now, and you must be curious about the picture, but it'd be better if I start from the top.

This morning we started at mile 91.19, at the third gate water cache. My right quad swelling had gone down quite a bit thanks to the Vitamin I, a little rest, and a lot of arnica. (Thanks Claire!) 

As we started the incline it started to hurt right away. After a mile or two, the trail switched over the top of the mountain and continued up the other side. Suddenly, the pain magically relieved! We then realized that the reason one side of our bodies was hurting so much yesterday was because of the slant of the trail against the mountain. 

Yesterday we were on the left side of the mountain all day for over 14 miles! That means that with every step, my right leg was hitting the ground at a higher level than my left, for ~38,000 steps, (thanks Focus for the data), and THAT'S why my right quad freaked out.

With the mountain blessing us with relief, we climbed about 4 miles, and started a loooooong gradual descent downwards, eventually cutting the wind resistance greatly. The day was bleak and cold, but we were feeling better than yesterday and trekked on all day, taking minimal rests. 

We found "Billy Goat's Cave", but neither of us dared to enter...

Alright, time for the first exciting announcement: Claire and I have officially walked over 100 miles from the Mexican Border on the PCT!! Yay yay yay!

1 down, only 26 to go!!!

This definitely gave us a nice boost of energy, as up until this point neither of us was able to comprehend, let alone imagine hiking 100 miles in 8 days... Whoa...

We kept trucking on feeling good, and eventually new terrain was insight! Hallelujah! Being on that cold windy mountain for 5 days now was getting old in the slightest! 

Descending down into the sequence of huge open meadows was such a relief! 

I know it doesn't look all that pretty but dang it was beautiful! And boy flat ground and level trial was amazing! 

We weaved in and out of wooded areas and meadows, and approached a landmark in our guide listed as Eagle Rock. As we approached the rock formation we passed a two person tent and someone stuck their head out to see who was passing by.

RUSS!! Claire and I both yelled, as we realized it was the first fellow hiker we had met on our journey. He was the hiker who we met on the bus from San Diego and talked with on the way to the terminus. Claire and I had thought we may see him again after the first day. When we got picked up by Susan, (Alanna's mom who we stayed with our first night), he had continued hiking into the night, and we hadn't seen him since! 

Claire, Russ (new trail name "Chips"), "Guac", and I 

Chips and Guac Met on the trail and they are so cute together! They set up their tent at about 1 and we continued on, letting me know that we may see them again soon!

After the awesome reunion, we walked up to Eagle Rock. It is by far the coolest rock formation I've ever seen! 

Super defined spread wings, broad chest, and even a beak! We took many pictures here, including the one of me standing on its' head (sorry Ma).

Our bodies were aching sooooo bad, but we only had three more miles until Warner Springs! We originally had no intention on getting from Scossors Crossing to Warner Springs in two days, but all of a sudden we were so close! 

As we approached the weather began to clear up and there were more and more trees around... Ahhhhh

Seeing some familiar faces upon entering town, we were told that the school across the street was selling $5 dinners! We hurried (well kind of hobbled and groaned) over to the school and scored the last two plates! Two hot dogs with chili and a sugar snap cookie with some orange juice, yum!! The students providing the service had done a project on the PCT, and had recently walked a small portion of it! 

The end of our day just got better and better as we crossed the street to the Warner Springs Resource Center, where we heard free camping was offered. We were amazed at how many tents are here, I count about 40!

(Not all of the tents are even in view)

We found a spot and then strolled over to check out the center, the hours say 8am-4pm but apparently they've been staying open for hikers until 10 or 11pm to use the Internet, charge their phones, converse over trail closure alternates, and most importantly eat.

This was the most amount of hikers I've seen in one place at one time the entire trip! The trail isn't ever this crowded, as everyone goes their own pace. What happens is when there's a small enough town with one main congregation area, a lot of people stay a few days to rest and recoup or to wait for their next mail drop resupply that they've sent in advance.

We saw a bunch of our friends and other people who we thought were long gone or way ahead of us. We talked to so many people catching up and sharing our funny stories and ailments with each other. It's crazy how much you realize you care about some of these people out here that you may have only met a handful of times in passing. Everyone shares the outdoor adventure passion, and loves and respects nature, so basically, (almost everyone you meet is really really cool) 

Claire and I got some royal treatment as did the others before us. Free fresh fruit and complimentary cookies and coffee and hot tea. Someone even made us a root beer float! However, the cherry on top was definitely the Epsom salt bath foot massage:

Living like kings and queens out here I tell ya! 

Oh, I almost forgot! Along with all these awesome things happening today, I forgot to mention one more: We set a new daily mileage record with 18.33 miles today!

To think yesterday we were having such a bad time and sulking about continuing on in the cold and wind, our problems felt huge. Today, with a little weather break, (It's not warm yet, just not so windy), and our bodies giving us the green light, we accomplished so much and are now living it up in good hands here in Warmer Springs.

In a perfect world, there would be nothing wrong, but alas, there is always something... Viewer discretion advised here, so if you don't like gross things, maybe flip past this next picture. I told myself that I'd be true and "raw" with this blog...

Something that I knew I had to take car of next time we were able to be clean I'm a town was my heel blisters. Like all thru-hikers, (yup, every single one!), we have developed some pretty bad ones. This one here kind of looks like a baby's foot, no? 

After the Epsom soak and a nice clean of the area, I (without going into too much detail) "took care" of the buggers and tomorrow they will be wrapped up with some Neosporin and by Saturday I won't remember they were there :) 

Tomorrow Claire and I plan on staying in Warmer Springs for a "zero day". A day of no hiking on the PCT. Zero days are common in towns with amenities to clean, properly care for, and rest your body for the upcoming stretch. 

Some good advice that we got yesterday from a hiker named "OB" (Old and Busted), was that we have to "Take care of you". He is an older man that has had many knee surgeries, and is now doing the PCT and doing great! He told us many other things from his personal experience, and I greatly value his advice..

We plan on dressing the blisters, cutting skittle more weight off our packs, resting, and best of all: picking up some cookies sent here by my old high school dean Crystine!! (We're so excited Crystine, thanks for being awesome!)

Thanks for reading! 

Day 8- April 27th

After some R&R and staying up a little too late yesterday (11pm), we took our sweet time getting moving today. Banjo and Focus left at around 7, but at 8 Focus came back and told us they had been waiting for a ride for almost an hour with no luck. Hooray for sleeping in! 

We were finally all packed and ready to go just before 9. As we were almost to the road, a lady asked us if we needed a ride. We didn't even need to pull out our fancy hitchhiking sign! Her name was Crissy and she took Claire and I, as well as another hiker named Dudley, back out to the trail.

Dudley, Crissy, Claire and I

Dudley had apparently started on the 19th, (the day before us), but had pushed himself too hard out of the gate and developed a big infected blister. He had stayed at the RV park for 3 days taking care of it. I'm just happy that Claire and I have been going a nice way everyday but pacing and letting our bodies adjust to the trail with no injuries so far.

The trail started as a big climb out of the valley where Scissors Crossing is, but even though we had a later start, the morning was much more temperate than the past few days. 

We saw even more new and interesting cacti today!

This was one of my favorites:

Something interesting I was thinking about yesterday and today: there's a lot of small reptiles and insects (snakes, lizards, geckos, butterflies, beetles, crickets, ants, etc) that are out here pretty much uninterrupted by any human traffic almost all year. Then, within the span of 2-3 months, there's hundreds of giants constantly stomping through their lands. I wonder what they think about this phenomena.. Why are these giants here? With the increasing amount of thru-hikers on the pct each year, I wonder if these reptiles and insects teach their young about giant season, and how to safely play outside and avoid being squashed...

These are the things that I think about. I mean, when you think about it, we're walking alllll day long. What do you do when walking for 9-12 hours and talking gets boring? You think. A lot. About everything. Whoa man it's crazy how much you think...

Well tonight I'm thinking about pain.. Today about 7 or so miles in, my right quad started killing me. I stretched it and stretched it but the pain persisted.. For Claire it was the same thing but for her right knee and calf. 

There were not many shaded places to rest today, as the whole day we were constantly climbing up an exposed ridge. Whenever we did rest the winds would blow us so cold that when we started again we were painfully creaky, and all of our pains seemed to multiply. (Speaking of multiplying, Claire now has two blisters instead of one, and I've jumped up from 2 to 5!)

 Up until now I've refused to take any Vitamin I... (Ibuprofen). Claire said I should take some to help my inflamed quad. When changing into my PJ's I discovered a huge swollen bump on my upper quad. It hurts super bad and I'm not really looking forward to tomorrow. We have 18.3 miles left to get to Warner Springs. 

Currently we're camped next to an awesome  water cache called third gate! Some awesome people bring up all this water for these 100's of hikers so that the 32 mile waterless stretch is only a 14 and an 18! 

We could stay here and rest tomorrow but A.) there's another high wind advisory for tonight and tomorrow with gusts up to 55 mph, and we're at the very top top of the windy canyon! B.) that would mean depleting too much food, and since we'll need two days for the 18.3 miles, we have to get going tomorrow and just take it nice and slow. 18.3 miles of downhill for a bummed quad is however not my favorite thought...

There's not much else to say about today, it was windy and cold but also sunny and sun-burn-giving. Not my favorite day so far but hey, we climbed for 14.2 miles in the most arid environment I've ever been in, not bad eh? 

One last bit of bad news: (I hope I'm not bumming you guys out, but today was rough) Our stove is breaking. As in the new stove we bought in Mt. Laguna 4 days ago! This is only the second time we've used it.. :/ it looks like only one side is burning causing the metal to warp on that side. If it warps anymore it could be dangerous and leak out some propane. 

My plan is to call the store I bought it from on Friday when we get to Warmer Springs, and either have them send me a new one up trail or at least refund my credit card so I can get a new one. Third time's the charm right? 

But not to worry, Claire and I always carry enough "dry food to last until the next town in case things like this happen. It's just such a bummer because hot food is so good! 

Not all bad news though! We caught up with some friends today that we hadn't seen for awhile. We caught up to Banjo and Focus. And then we got surprised by Patrick and John, who we had last seen on day 4 when we left Boulder Oaks on our 16.77 mile day! 

 John's trail name is "Beast of Bourbon", and after we all had a swig, he explained the story behind that as well as how his goal after the PCT is to get on the show Survivor. He's been trying for 6 years! 

Last must know: Claire and I ate a LOT of food tonight, a huge 4 serving of super good rice, a 4 serving of idahoan potatoes, and a packet of ramen noodles with some extra condiments.

Well that's about it, this is probably the longest post to date, hope I didn't bum you guys out. We are in good spirits just a little sore, and there are better days to come! 

Thanks for reading! 

Day 7- April 26

Wow, today felt so long I just had to ask Claire where we woke up this morning! Today we got up nice and early and broke camp right before 7. We were relieved to head up the hill and find that the wind had subsided! 

Before I started the trail, I thought that the desert would be the same and boring all the time. But in fact it's been complete opposite so far! We've already seen many different faces of the desert, and today we saw another. 

There were beautiful pink and yellow flowers on different cacti, (maybe prickly pear?) there were also some really really tall plants that resembled yucca plants put instead of flowers on top they just looked like huge asparagus spears:

We walked on and off with Focus, who we met up with about 3 1/2 miles into our day. We found out that he and the group of people that had stayed overnight in Mt. Laguna when Claire and I went on into the wind storm, did 21 miles yesterday! 

Claire and I were planning to walk 13.35 miles to Scissors Crossing, where we'd hitchhike into Julian 13 miles and possibly stay the night at a trail angel named Carmen's house. 

Like I said, we left camp by 7am. We reached our goal by 2pm! That's a 2mph average including our breaks! This was thanks to the low winds today (unlike the torrents of the last two days)

There was a trail angel under the bridge just before our hitch spot giving people beer and fresh fruit. I cannot tell you how good it feels to eat a fresh tangerine and apple after walking in a very arid desert all day! I passed on the beer because I knew that if I partook I would not be very productive in Julian... I did enjoy the sign he made for hikers just before we got to the bridge:

Hitching into Julian only took a few minutes, and our ride's name was Ed Manning. He's retired and has literally been driving people to and from places they've needed to go all week! He gave us a little tour of Julian before dropping is off in the back of Carmen the trail angel's place. She has laundry for hikers to use and a patio that they can hang out on and rest. 

We heard from another hiker that the night before, Carmen's landlord told her that she can't house hikers anymore, and that there was nowhere else to stay but the $80-$90 hotel rooms. 

I made a run to the post office to send some unnessecasry gear back home, then we took advantage of our free pie and drink at Mama's! This place was so awesome and had been our driving determination the last few windy days.

My complimentary lemonade and strawberry rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream! 

Then in true dessert-before-dinner fashion, we also ordered some chicken pot pies :) We then brainstormed on what our next step was. It's too early to dish out $90 for a room when there's good camping all over. However we were looking forward to a chance for laundry and a shower.

Luckily, there's a fancy RV park that was the 13 miles back to Scissors Crossing, and then 4 miles down the intersecting highway. They had $8 campsites that included showers and a laundromat on site! We had a new plan. Quickly researching how much water and food we'd need for the next stretch, we went to go resupply at the grocery store in Julian.

In the store guess who we ran into? Carmen the trail angel! We had reunited with Joe in Julian (new trail name: banjo) and she asked if we were heading out of town. When we said yes she offered to take us back to Scissors Crossing!

Banjo, Claire, Me, and Carmen in her car

After thanking her profusely, she cruised away. Not 30 seconds later, the first car we saw, a tiny 2-door Toyota Celica stopped for us! He said he could take us to the RV Park, and the 3 of us, AND our 3 huge packs, somehow crammed into his tiny car. Total wait time on road, about 17 seconds. Best hitchhike experience ever! 

Checking out the laundry room in the park, we found an awesome hiker box with all kind of goodies, food, and shampoos and conditioners for the free showers!

The place is so hiker friendly, and there are six hikers staying the night here. Everybody is SO nice to PCT hikers in this part of the trail, it's ridiculous! 

Focus (who arrived shortly after), Claire, and Banjo. Freshly showered and waiting for laundry.

These simple amenities like laundry and a hot shower seem like the greatest things in the world! I hadn't showered for a week! All my clothes were covered in a layer of dirt. And being able to hang out and cook some food and blog like this in a nice plastic chair is just great.

Well, it's 9:49pm right now, waaaaaay past my bed time, so I guess I'll go get some nice, clean, sleep! 

Tomorrow we begin our 32 mile trek to Warner Springs! There is only one water source on the way, but we're leaving tomorrow nice and prepared with plenty of water.

Thanks for reading!

Day 6- April 25th

Last night was the toughest night camping I've had yet to date, haha. Our nice little dirt area above the picnic area became a recipe for disaster. Winds violently shook the tent, bending poles and dislodging items stored in the corner pockets. Wind continuously whipped up the dirt and then sent it right in between our rain fly and tent, causing a layer of super fine dirt to be sprinkled on us and all our belongings throughout the night. I only slept for 3 hours, in 3 different one hour increments, and I had to use eye drops 4 times to remove dirt from my eyes during the night. Everything is dirty and the winds still whipped strong through the morning hours.

Between our rain fly and tent

We were debating waiting out the wind in our dirty tent this morning, but decided to get a move on. Phillip was still asleep but his tent was flat on him. We let him sleep in, only imagining his night, and Claire and Megan and I went off. It was a good thing we didn't try and wait out the wind. It lasted ALL. DAY..

If I could describe today in three words it would be windy, rocky, and windy. We started of strong despite the small amount of sleep we had, but in a few minutes started to feel the hurt. Wind was relentless and the trail was rough. Eventually Joe caught up to us. Joe is carrying a guitar on the whole pct. Joe is awesome.

We were literally being blown away by the wind and the trail became only rocks. A rocky road (not as lovely as the ice cream flavor) and that much wind is a recipe for twisted ankles. We needed some shelter from the whipping wind, and fast!

Joe + guitar in full wind gear walking on rocks.

We referred to our maps and saw that there was a small trailhead with a "privy" and "water" near a highway that intersected the PCT. The side trip was only .5 miles off and Joe and Claire and I decided we would take it, to get out of the wind and for Joe to fill up in some water. Megan decided to push on, hoping to find a nice, windless resting spot.

The "water" ended up being this:

Luckily Claire and I each packed enough water out of Mount Laguna yesterday to not need to chance filtering and possibly getting sick from the trough, as there is a cleaner water source soon up ahead in tomorrow's plan. I'm crossing my fingers for Joe..

The "privy" however ended up being an awesome outhouse big enough to shelter 3 from the windstorm. Yes, we all rested and ate food in a bathroom: we're walking 40 shadeless, exposed miles through a storm-warning, you don't understand how nice that bathroom was.

Joe and Claire as happy as can be for being in the lou..

Since last night got real windy and dirty, I decided to dry out my sleeping bag during or break. (As it got wet from condensation last night because I sleep hot) Water and superfine dirt equal mud. Muddy sleeping bag = no good. I also got creative with our solar charger so it wouldn't blow away while charging Claire's phone:

After a few songs on the guitar, and some nice rest, we decided to head out into the madness again to reach lower ground, which was theoretically coming up within the next six miles. 

Back on the trail, we found a wind-protected switchback in the trail, and rested for a bit, talking about Wednesday's riches: free fruit and pie in a town called Julian. 

A guy ready for a pie. Joe often rests "on trail", quite literally.

With winds blowing strong but hopes up, we finally descended down from our exposed wind-march, and into a much less windy canyon. From here the trail goes back up into the wind for 13.6 miles to where the trail meets the highway on which we hitchhike 13 miles west to the town of Julian for our resupply and free pies and fruit.

We are camping here tonight and since we arrived shortly after 4, the plan is to get plenty of rest and get an early start tomorrow, to once again face the winds, and put those last 13.6 miles behind us. Although we only did 11.1 miles today, we are hoping that more than three hours of sleep and no 2 hour "bathroom break" tomorrow will aid us in our quest.

A few minutes ago I was outside the tent and we saw two coyotes about 50 ft from us cross on the other side of the valley! 

It is now 6:54pm, probably the earliest I've attempted to sleep since I was 5 years old! 

Thanks for reading! 

Day 5- April 24th

Wow, I can't believe I'm actually keeping up with this thing daily.. After a long day of hiking you're so sore and tired, but somehow I feel like I'm gonna love looking back at all this, and re-living each day on this incredible journey, so here we go!

Last nights stealth-camping was a success! I'm wondering if tonight's spot will be too but we'll get to that later.. Claire and I woke up in Mt. Laguna, and once again headed to Pine Coffee house and tavern, this time for breakfast! There were many more hikers this morning than there were yesterday, we heard them all come in early in the morning while we "slept in" until 7:30 comfortably in our tent :) 

After an awesome breakfast and meeting a few new people, we headed to Laguna Mountain Sports and bought a new stove! They have awesome, hiker-friendly prices there, and I got a sweet deal for a better stove than the one we broke! 

We also rummaged through our first "hiker-box". A box usually found at hiker hubs where other hikers toss their food that they're sick of or gear that they don't want anymore. One hiker's trash is another's treasure! I scored a whole jar of peanut butter and a brand new pair of $50 Columbia rain pants! I'm carrying these to Julian, and then forwarding them to Kennedy Meadows, the entrance to the Sierra..

After talking with some new and old friends, and gathering all the water and additional food we'd need for the next stretch, we realized it was already past noon! Time really flies in towns, that's for sure! 

We quickly ran into Phillip, who we had heard about but never met. Shortly after telling him that I haven't seen a rattle yet, he saw one in the trail! He was walking in front so I missed it. But not an hour later, I finally saw my first Rattle! He was tiny and not coiled. Just slithered away once he knew we were all staring.. A little anticlimactic but I'll take it!

We saw some awesome open expanses early on, and hiked through a few burn areas. The open expanses continued all day, but unfornutaely: The wind came.

The wind came hard and fast and stayed all day. At least 45-50 mph gusts on the ridges and exposed valleys! I quickly realized I wouldn't be using my umbrella, so instead I just loaded up on the sunscreen (just like I promised mom) :)

Taking intermittent breaks crouched behind the tiniest of bushes, our bodies were feeling the hurt. The sun and dryness, along with the gale-force winds and cold gusts combined forces to kick our butts! 

We finally found a rock to rest on and we saw Phillip (who had taken a longer break and we had gone on without him) and a girl named Megan. 

Without going into too much detail and lengthy bore, we were in a little predicament: We had to get a certain mileage today to escape a "camping ban", which basically said we can't "remote camp" (camping in a non-designated camping spot) within 10 miles of Mt. Laguna. The camping ban ends after a little picnic area, (where camping is not permitted) right next to the only road around. 

Except for this little oasis of grass and trees, there is laterally no where else to camp for miles, meaning that unless Claire and I booked 15 miles from Laguna, through the increasing winds and setting sun, we were out of luck. 

We finally made it to the picnic area, after 11.31 ROUGH miles from Mt. Laguna. We knew that we couldn't camp here, but we could NOT go on..

The four of us walked over to a picnic table to set our packs down and think, and a woman approached us immediately. "Oh great", I thought, "she's managing this area and she's gonna tell us we can't stay here."

To my surprise, she comes over and tells us that she had beers in the car for us. We were stoked!! This was the first big "trail magic" that Claire and I have experienced. We went up to her car and the four of us enjoyed PBR, and some fresh tangerines and apples! The ladies name was "Moosey" a trail name she received from hiking the Appalachian trail a few years back. She has also completed the Pacfic Crest Trail and I believe the Continental Divide Trail as well! 

Left to right: PBR, Megan, PBR, Phillip, "Moosey", Cabernet Sauvignon, PBR, and Claire!

After talking with "Moosey" for a bit, and forgetting about some of our aches and pains, we thanked her profusely and after she left we started searching for a good spot to camp.

There's a little road that heads down to the picnic area from the highway. I noticed that on the other side of the road there was some flat looking ground behind some trees. This is where all four of us are crammed tonight. Technically we are out of the camping-ban zone (I think). Well anyway that's my story and I'm sticking to it! 

The winds are supposed to reach 70 mph gusts by tonight, with a strong wind warning lasting until sometime tomorrow. That combined with a low of 36 degrees, well tonight will be interesting to say the least!

Thanks for reading!

Day 4- April 23rd

Hola!

Today was so long, it felt like two days put together! We started nice and early at the Boulder Oaks Campground, said goodbye to our trail friend Daniel who decided to leave the trail today :'(

Walking straight up another biiiiig hill, (this is starting to become a recurring morning theme of ours), we popped onto a very exposed ridge, taking in some awesome expansive views with some giant far away windmills, teasing us with air movement from afar that we were just not feeling... :p

It seems that our hiking style is to leave a little after everyone else, but then somehow pass many people in the first few hours of hiking, then "leapfrogging" for the rest of the day: (resting on and off at different times and locations than other hikers, so that you see each other multiples times a day)

A couple notable people that we see a lot are: 

Focus- (from Seattle) he started out with a small group of people but we somehow always tend to see him more than the others. (He got his trail name on te first day when his hiking buddies (Christy and Daniel) repeatedly told him to "Focus Charlie!"

Patrick- Has a very similar hiking pace as us, we tend to see this guy mainly at night and early mornings. 

Mike- just met him today, he's an older, very sun-exposed man, who doesn't wear much on the trail. Today I donated one of my bottles I sunscreen to him. (It's a weird brand that Claire says stinks) :p And I don't go through mine quickly since I'm taking protective clothing approach through the desert.

Orion- This guy is a character. We camped in the same area as him on the second night. He lives in Portland, Maine, and has the best trail laugh we've heard so far! Our second encounter was him catching up to us in the hot desert sun, BAREFOOT! To my shocked response he simply replied "I'm just trying it out"

Orion went on ahead of where we camped last night, and today on our first steep incline,we found him up on a cliff just off the trail, waking up at 10am or so (super late for a through hiker). He had hiked into the night and the only spot for him to camp was just a little smaller than his tiny tent! 

As the desert was heating up, we walked through a field of unexploded ordinances, I thought to myself "my grandpa is an expert on these, I wish I brought him along!" (Love you Papa, thanks for reading everyday)

Shortly after this picture we ran into Tommy and his awesome Poodle Charlie! He hiked with Claire for a bit (because this dog loves the ladies) and we were reminded of our dog Starlite for a brief moment:

We took small breaks all morning and kept moving, drinking enough water and snacking on some bars. By 2:00 (the hottest time of day) we HAD to find a nice shady spot for a siesta, but of course, as has happened once already, no shade for another hour! We finally found a nice spot where Claire and I laid out the Tyvek (cheap makeshift ground cloth for our tent, costing $7 instead of $80) and proceeded to eat about 8 "normal" servings of food from our pack. No joke people, we ate... (Claire pictured on her foam pad at the top of this entry)

After we ate half of our food, and laying around for an hour, we booked the last two miles down, (and then back up again), to Mount Laguna, making a new daily record at 16.77 miles! 

We had a beer and, (not surprisingly), more food and desert... (We hongry!)

Tonight we're stealth camping in the closed campground just outside the town.. Shhhhh! The free camprgeound is three miles down the road, but since we need to resupply in town here tomorrow, we weren't about to make this a 20 mile day... 

Tonight again, no rain fly. The stars are beautiful and the long day was perfect.

It's 9:07pm, waaaay past my bedtime! 

Thanks for reading!

Edit: after posting, and as I was falling asleep, I open my eyes for a second and I saw a nice long shooting star. A perfect way to end the night!