7am: I had a great night’s sleep in the Anderson’s back yard last night. They have a forest of manzanita trees with a trail leading to multiple tent sites. After checking with other thru-hikers who camped out there last night, there was consensus that their back yard was the enchanted forest. Remy and Heather and I were the only hikers moving as we made our way to the front door of the Anderson’s house. I went inside … all hikers were sound asleep, as were our trail angel hosts. Remy and Heather decided to leave and attempt a hitch back to the trail. I was content to sit quietly in the kitchen to catch up on journaling.
Soon there was movement; Terrie came into the kitchen, announced sleepily that she had overslept, then proceeded to start cooking huge pancakes and waffles for the thru-hiker group. Whoop Ass had a rough morning and may possibly have giardia. If so, it would be the first case we’ve seen on the PCT. After breakfast the hiker crowd congregated in the Anderson front yard to sign the Casa De Luna Lunatic Lounge sheet mounted on the garage door. Then Polaroid shots were taken by Joe and Terrie Anderson of all the hikers for their photo book for 2005. Eventually the lazy morning passed and we began getting shuttles back to the PCT.
I think we started hiking around 11 am, and it was pretty obvious today was not going to be a long distance day. The PCT is available for hiker and pedestrian use. Until today, I had not seen any horses on the trail. That changed as there was a 100 mile endurance race on the PCT that included our section. We had to step off the trail dozens of times until mid-afternoon as the horses and their riders galloped past us. After the first climb of the day several of us took a break and I called Eric and Ashley as well as Creeper back home to work on logistics, getting ready for the high Sierras in case we decide to go straight through instead of slupping ahead to avoid the snow. Our group had collectively decided to side trip via the Andersons, if available or by a hitch, to the Rock Inn in nearby Hughes Lake at a road crossing. We had Philly Cheesesteaks on the brain.
When we arrived at the road crossing only 8 miles into the hiking day, the Andersons were not there. Nitro led the charge on hitching and was able to get two cars to stop on a not so busy two lane road. Doodlebug, Bono and Nightingale took the first hitch while Nitro and I took the second. The Rock Inn was about 5 miles away. As Nitro and I got our packs from the trunk of our hitch, Joe Anderson pulled up and asked if there were more hikers needing a ride. We told him yes, four more, and he promptly drove away to pick up Happy, Badmoon, Phantom, and Whoop Ass. They all soon joined us in the restaurant/bar for afternoon sandwiches and beers. Soon there was talk of staying the night at the Inn upstairs, so we could spend the evening at the bar enjoying live, classic rock music, dancing and pool.
After much discussion and indecision, we finally all agreed to reluctantly go back to the trail to hike a couple more miles to get us ready for a big hiking day tomorrow. Joe Anderson shuttled all of us back to the trail, making three trips to do so. We resumed hiking about 5 pm and found an excellent campsite atop a mountain with great views in every direction. We have spent the last couple hours eating, relaxing, talking and journaling while watching day turn to dusk to night. All nine of us are cowboy camping in a cool, breezy spot with just a few mosquitoes buzzing around. Tomorrow we get back to the business of hiking some significant miles.
Today’s weather: sunny; low 38; high 80. Today’s mileage: 9.8
Cumulative mileage: 488.4
