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!