Day 3, 14.51 miles

What a day!! I woke up at around 5am this morning and forced myself to go back to sleep. Usually I’d be up and at em, but the Wolverines said they’d cook some pancakes in the morning, and I needed to wait until 9 for the store to open. 

I was a little stiff and sore, and EXTRA cold.. it turns out that cowboy camping on a metal picnic table is a wee bit colder than the standard wooden variety..

I had a great breakfast of pancakes AND bacon (surprise!!), profusely thanked the Wolverines once again, then headed to the store a little early. Lucky for me, they were rolling out the Open sign at 8:30 as I hobbled up the asphalt road from the campground. 

“You guys already open?” I asked, out of respect, just in case they weren’t quite ready to take any customers yet.

He simply pointed to the sign then grumbled, “Why would he even ask me that question..”

Jeez Louise, great, I’m glad that me and all my similars are out here spending money at your store and being treated so well in return.. as you can probably tell from my slightly passive aggressive blog-venting, the rudeness continued and the store people were not very friendly. But, I digress.

Luckily, there was a GREAT hiker box there, so after buying a few items for $10 total, and supplementing with delicious items other people no longer wanted, my plunder looked like this:

Not bad for $10 eh? 

I headed off with Jacob, (oh yeah, I forgot to mention I caught up with him last night again), but this morning I told him the same thing: To go his own pace and I’d see him soon. He quickly spit off ahead as my stiff legs were still warming up. 

The trail started off with my least favorite terrain type..

Lots of hot rocks everywhere with no flat place to step are not very good for blisters. I definitely had some dejavu back to Claire and I’d time out here navigating these hot coals.. I didn’t have much time to pout as I was soon met with great expansive vistas and amazing views:

At this same spot in 2016 we saw our first baby rattler! Still no snakes yet this time. The wind was also not gusting at 70mph, and I was grateful for that. The morning grew hot quick, and I found myself taking a breather under this sweet deck:

The view from under the deck

One of these finally let me get close enough to take a good picture!

Hit the 50 mm today, yay!

Very nice new wood-burned sign

The trail today mainly stayed up high, traversing across huge walls of stone and steep brushed mountainsides. There is also a road that winds through and connects a few towns together, so every once in a while the trail would meet with a scenic lookout or a little picnic area. This is nice because the built parks and road stops provide planted shade which wouldn’t naturally be in this area.

One great spot like this was Pioneer Mail Picnic Area. I recalled resting at this place during the high winds in 2016 and receiving a trail magic beer, and I was glad there was some nice shade there this time so I could kick up my feet.

Yes, I have more blisters than toes at this point

Dirty boy :)

Not 10 minutes into my break, I saw 5 women coming up the trail behind me. I had briefly said hi to them at a nice scenic overlook just off trail a few miles back. One of them went to her car and brought down a cooler. On her way down she asked if I wanted a beer!

These ladies were so cool! I completed their 6-pack celebration while we talked about various things, mainly pertaining to the trail. The “leader” of the group (sorry I never got your name!) told me she was hiking 100 miles of the Southern California PCT in different sections and this was her team to do it with her! They even hooked me up with some electrolyte drinks and extra snacks they didn’t use on this section! Thank you ladies! :)

The status on a particular water source went back and forth on me a few times depending on which other hikers I talked to. The last PDF of the water report I saw online told me it was broken, but when I was leaving the campground there was a hand written note saying that it had recently been fixed. Given this information I decided to go for a dry camp (not near a water source) that I had seen was only a few more miles down trail. It was already 4pm and my blistered feet were ready to stop!

I’m so glad I decided to stop here tonight, this place is so beautiful! Just before I reached the official mile mark of where the campsite was, I veered off onto a faint side path which led me right up to a huge boulder with a flat spot underneath it. I hastily set up my tent in case more PCT hikers were close on my heels. The larger campsite a few hundred yards further was also nice but very exposed to the increasing winds. 

I took my food bag and scrambled up to the top of the boulder for a little dinner with a great view before things got too windy.

Why not?

Here, as I type this, I can here the wind whipping by the rock but it shields me and I’m not affected. I have good service here, and was able to call Claire for a good 40 minutes :) I miss her dearly and the thought of being away so long pains me to think about. I really appreciate her and how selfless her support for my dream is! Thanks babe! 

Here are more pictures of the area, I’m hoping to see some meteors tonight, as well as get a nice sunrise picture of my tent setup in the morning.

An on-trail panorama facing away from my tent

A sneaky, protected, cowboy camping spot 

A little pano from the top of the boulder 

Another shot from trail

The picture at the top of this post is also from tonight’s camp spot.

Well, it’s been a good day! I never thought I’d say “I decided to take it easy and stop at 14 miles”, hahaha.

Thanks for reading, goodnight!