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!
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!
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