Another night at the ranger station but at least the rain was gone and we are back in Southern California – blue sky and sunshine 😎.
Mainly a downhill cruise with a lot of cool ridgewalk!
Todays lunch break was planned for a campground which also had water after 10 miles. Again we could see the campground long before we got there. Why? Because the trail again made us go up on another hill, around the second one, down and up again, into the next valley, around another hill… We could have been there within 10 minutes but it took us about 45. The trail could also be called Trail of unnecessary detours… 😂 But theb Sophia and I found out! The trail is not called “Pacific Crest Trail – National Direct Route” but Pacific Crest Trail – National SCENIC Trail”… I guess that explains it 😂😂😂
Well, that’s the scenic part I guess 😂
Of course the break was dominated by food and ice cream when we found out the campground had a store!!!
And I also was lucky that someone had just dumped a lot of amazing food into a hiker box which I got my hands on. Hiker boxes exist everywhere along the trail in stores, gas stations, etc. Hiker who don’t need certain items anymore can drop stuff in them and others can just take it. By that you don’t have to throw away equipment or food which is still good and others can re-use it! I have gotten quite some good meals out of them already.
After a lot of ice cream we still had about 10 miles to go. Do you want to see what the outlook on beer and burger can do to you? Flying with an 4+ mile average over the hills… 😂
We passed the famous Vasquez Rocks – also scenery of many Western Movies.
When we cruised into town we were directly stopped by Bangarang – an old hiker friend – and dragged into the restaurant for an early dinner.
And then we arrived in “Hikers Heaven”. This is a crazy place. Someone offers their backyard for the hiker community and volunteers take care of everything. There are internet & computer tents, a packing and sewing station, rental cloth, laundary (you just drop your dirty and smelly stuff and the volunteers wash, dry and deliver it to you 🤔), toilets, 1 shower and a big hiker community taking a rest and recovering.
We chilled, had a few beers, actually watched TV shows for a while and caught up with a lot of hikers which we had met along the trail and who we met again… Wow!
