Day 39- May 28th

This morning I woke before the light once again. Sleeping on the picnic table on Friday night, Memorial Day weekend, was not as nice as it is out on a closed mountain campground way out in nature, but it was still pretty nice. :)

I pulled the threads out of my blisters, wrapped those puppies up, and I was back out on the trail before 6:30am. I definitely walked VERY slow today compared to yesterday. I really think I overdid it, and today I was suffering for it. Also, I popped 5 blisters on the bottom of my feet yesterday, so at the least today was a painful wince with every step.

I knew I'd be fine because I only had 10 miles until Agua Dulce, where I would rendezvous with Claire, and if be there in time for lunch! :)

Less than half a mile out I came across the Golden Spike. A little monument next to the railroad tracks that commemorated the official completion of the PCT on June 5th, 1993. Dang, I could've hiked this thing when I was 3! 

Even though I had a very early start, I was scorching by 8. The summer sun is no joke here in the desert, and it's not even really summer yet! I found a cool little cave which gave me enough shade to change out my socks. 

My phone had some good service, so I called my roommate Emily in Portland to check on the new roommate situation and my car. My dad called me to coordinate our pick-up today in Agua Dulce! I'm so stoked! Claire and I are going to take a few days off the trail to recover, and maybe so see some cool things with Dad and Micah!

Time flies on the phone. When I got off, there was only 3.5 miles to go! There was only two places the whole day to stop for some shade. One was the cave, and the other was a tunnel under Highway 14. I stopped here to elevate and air out my feet, and do some necessary stretching.

Ah, some shade and a wall to elevate my feet! (Gotta catch 'em all!)

I left the tunnel shortly after 10am. It was nice to rest in the cool, but I knew I had to get to Agua Dulce, (and to more Agua), before the real heat of the day!

My blisters were reaaaaally hurting, and I was going super slow. I came upon Vasquez rocks which I thought were really neat but every step hurt so bad I just wanted to get there! There was a cool super steep rock that people were climbing and I really wanted too, but I just hurt too much..

I had been texting back and forth with Claire on and off, and coming out of Vasquez rocks area I read a text that said "Beast of Bourbon is on his way. I couldn't stop him!" I hadn't seen Bourbon since Warner Springs mile 109!! 

As I was looking at my phone trying to figure out what the text meant, Bourbon popped out from behind a rock and grabbed my pack right off of my back! I was only about a mile from Agua Dulce, and he had walked from the town to come meet me and carry my pack!

We spent some time catching up on things while we walked back. He had dislocated his hip while trying to pick up Nema, his girlfriend he met on the trail! He was doing some volunteer trail angel work for the Saufley's while recovering at Hiker Heaven! It felt so weird walking without my pack for a bit, but my feet hurt waaaay less, I couldn't complain!

We walked into town with a few others including Metro and BJ, who had caught up to my slow-butt even though I had left earlier than them. When we walked into own I went straight for pizza! Downed a loaded 10 inch pizza and a beer and felt niiiice. 

I had told Claire when I would be there and she rode from Hiker Heaven down to the pizza place to meet me. A few minutes later my brother Micah called me, they were already in Agua Dulce! Everything was happening so fast I was so excited!

They came and picked us up at the pizza place, then we drove back to Hiker Heaven to pick up Claire's pack. She gave me the tour as if never been there before, and we met Donna Saufley and one of the caretakers there.

The place was beautiful! A true hiker's heaven! I didn't get many pictures because I felt kind of weird just strolling in with everyone and then leaving again, but just trust me; it was magic.

Also, there are 8 dogs living there! 

Guard dogs sleeping on the job and letting all the dirty hikers in!!

We left and started heading north! We're going up to Yosemite for a couple days, and then dad will drop us off back in Agua Dulce!

As we were leaving town, dad was curious about Vasquez rocks, so we pulled into the parking area to check it out! I was feeling a little better and pizza and seeing my family, so on the hiking shoes went and up the giant rock we all climbed! (The one I was bummed about not climbing earlier)

In the pictures below we are at the very top of this rock pictures above.

We drove north up highway 395 and stopped a few times at a gas station and a store. We were able to find a vacancy in June Lake, (45 minutes from Yosemite), so I bought some Epsom salt for a foot bath later!

In the car Claire and I feasted the whole time. In true hiker-hunger fashion we ate everything we could get our hands on, most items provided by Dad. (Thanks Dad!) there were Macadamia nuts, li hing mui mangos, he even bright us a whole box of Clif bars!

The drive up just got prettier and prettier! We scoped out the Sierra and were in awe at all the snow, daydreaming about how soon we'd be up there to experience the beauty first hand. 

Driving up to June Lake we saw a super pretty sunset on the mountains  and reflected in the lake. The people at the front desk told us to take all the food out of our car, because there's a local bear that has broken car windows to get food! Yikes!!

So here we are, crazily 280 miles north from where I woke up today. Man today was looooong! I'm writing this whole my feet are soaking. Hopefully they feel good enough to walk around Yosemite a bit tomorrow! I'm so excited!

And I'm really really happy to see Micah and dad. Micah just graduated 8th grade, so dad took him on a little road-trip, and we joined up for the Sierra portion! What an awesome day!!

-Thanks for reading!