Day 32: A tale of two days in one

May 21, Day 32: 478.2-517.6

Miles Hiked: fire closure: 21.5 miles hiked

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful that the desert has not been blazing hot. I’m hoping to make it thru without the exhaustive heat that most PCT hikers have to endure. 

Shot up PCT marker

Rock arrows to show the way

Today seemed like two days in one with all the different hiking, lunch, hiking, hitching, hiking, then dinner. Started off at 6:30 am, and the desert was cold this morning. I thought I’d get warm quickly after leaving camp since it was a 2000 foot climb for the first several miles but it never happened, so I had to stop and put my stocking hat and puffy jacket on and I’d hike the rest of the morning bundled up even with the sun beaming down on me. It was 7.6 miles to the next road where the trail was closed due to the Lake Fire closure. Then it was a 3 mile road walk into the town of Lake Hughes (the lake is dried up).

Then I walked 0.7 miles away from the trail to the Rock Inn and I made it in time for a breakfast burrito and of course I got a cold Coca Cola and a Bloody Mary. Soon the rest of the group joined me and had lunch and drinks.

After lunch we still had a 14 miles road walk back to trail, Zippy, Navi and myself stopped first at the market for a Gatorade with the rest of the group heading down the road trying to get a hitch past the road walk. Once out of the store, Zippy, Navi and I got a hitch on the third car to pass, Aaron who was driving a truck… we’d pass our other friends who were ahead but Aaron couldn’t fit them in at that time because he was heading to a fire clean up crew just down the road in which he is the boss. While sitting there for a bit, our friends walked by and Aaron said that he’d be willing to pick them up down the road when he was done at the site. Soon 7 of us squeezed into his truck and we were on our way past the road walk and back to trail. 

After he dropped us off, we celebrated 500 miles and then we took off to hike 6.5 miles into Hiker Town where we’ll stay the night and get up tomorrow to hike the LA Aquaduct.  The local market offers hikers rides to their place from Hikertown for a burger and beer. Now it’s cowboy camping out of the wind for the night and hopefully a good nights sleep.