Agua Dulce to Mojave, Day 54, mile 566

Holy cow, I have made it half way through the desert. I did not keep notes every day so I will try to recreate it all...but some details may be foggy.

Hiker Heaven at the Agua Dulce is just amazing. This woman opens her home to dozens of hikers every night. They say there is a 50 hiker limit but in reality they never turn anyone away. They told me they had about 100 hikers a few nights before. Donna Saufley provides everything a hiker needs. She knows what that is because she is a hiker herself and has section hiked much of the PCT. You walk in and she orients you. You:

• sign up for a shower, grab a clean towel
• pick a spot to pitch your tent
• hang your pack to prevent dog food theft
• pick up your supply box in her garage (she is essentially the post office for the town and has dedicated her garage for this purpose)
• put your dirty clothes in a basket and use some clean cotton loaner clothes
• she washes your clothes for you!!!!!
• use the sewing/mailing igloo as needed
• use the media igloo as needed
• volunteers provide hourly rides into town (2 miles away)
• volunteers provide twice daily rides to REI (about one hour away)
• use the hiker trailer kitchen/lounge as needed (the women installed a mobile trailer for us!
• RELAX and HEAL

the garden trellises became pack and gear drying racks. every one found a spot, perhaps not totally level but it was so nice. I was under a tree and got shade all day long. 

they had nice gathering areas and a fire pit too.

I picked up my supply box plus a care package from my mom and my aunt. Mom sent the most amazing fresh baked gluten free treats. I did not share a single one...they were that good! The care package contained everything on my shopping list! Nuts, chocolate, salty crunchy treats. Some candy to share. Yummy.

This woman is a kindred spirit of mine. She is so organized! Here is where you drop your dirty laundry, pick up clean and nice loaner clothes and get a towel for your shower. You can pre-treat your clothes at the station too.

left is the mailing tent with every supply that you need to ship items. Left also contains the sewing machine. On the right is the media tent. They had wireless and 4 computers set up inside. I used this tent heavily to update my blog and order items for the Sierras and the snow. I am focused on getting through the desert but I have to look ahead to the snow and cold. I ordered micro spikes and some other items. Thanks to my friend Golden Girl who took the shuttle to REI and got me some toed Ininiji socks. My first round of blisters was mild and pretty painless. Not I am into a second round of blisters from the hot, sand and long downhill descents. My feet hurt and I have blisters on the ends of my toes, between my toes, at the base of my toes, on the side of my great toenail. I have never had a blister in any of these placed before! The toe socks help my toes and also act as a liner sock. It has helped a bit I guess. I am not sure what my feet would look like without the socks...worse?

They have structured their home to accommodate a smooth flow of hikers. I would love to have this pack rack in my own home.

I soaked my feet several times in Epsoms salts, that the angel Donna provided.

This is Black Widow. She is a delightful woman from Australia and she is traveling with Meercat. Black Widow got her name when she set her pack right under a black widow at the end of the day. She is rolling with it but her personality is a bit too light for such a weighty name. 

I met the two guys who are hiking the PCT and picking up trash along the way. They are nice guys but I only got to visit for a minute. You can read more about their mission at packing it out.

There are all types on the PCT. I am amazed by the number of hikers who smoke cigarettes. I would guess that 90% of us smoke pot and 90% of us drink. Some in moderation and some go over the top. This man was heading off into a long waterless stretch with more beer on board than water. Sheesh!

Donna Saufley and one of her dogs Tiny dropping me off at the trailhead. I hit the trailhead at 4:30 to avoid the heat but it was still a bit too early in the day. It was crazy hot. In an hour or so it started to cool and the hiking was much more pleasant. I hiked into the night till about 10 pm.

I do not handle the heat well. I just get redder and redder in the face!

I was chasing the sun and the sunset went on forever.

There you go...this sign was for the southbounders. I am 465 miles from Mexico. Just a few more miles to go.

The next day I had a short (8 mile) jaunt to the Anderson's. They call in Casa Del Luna. I got it done before 10 am and before it got hot. They are trail angels too who live about one mile from the PCT. I did not take a single picture of the place. I think I was too blown away. It is healing but in a very different way from the Saufley's. At the Andersons they have lots of shade and couches in their front yard. The back acres are a Madrona forest and it has about 80 tents sites, each more whimsical than the next with the beautiful bending Madrona branches everywhere. There was a finger/toe nails painting station, A convenience store was 4 blocks away for beer or ice cream or whatever you want. I bought a jug of Nutella and ate the whole thing over 2 days.

They have a rock painting station and there were fantastic painted rocks and signs all over the place. All with positive messages. They had face painting, an outdoor shower, and they made tacos every night and pancakes every morning. I was able to get my PCT bandana there, Mrs. Anderson made me dance for it.

Dinner was great. A giant #10 can of cheese whiz like stuff and refried beans over corn chips. She had salsa, olives, lettuce, jalapenos and sour cream too. I went back for seconds. You cannot understand the raw hunger that a hiker can feel out here until you experience it for yourself. I am not maintaining my usual high food standards. For some reason Mrs. Anderson took a liking to me and she whispered to me to go wash my hands. Then during her pre-dinner speech and instructions she told everyone else to wash their hands first so I ended up being first in line.

She had clear rules and guidelines. We were not to hold our plates over the serving bowls as we dished up so that we did not cross contaminate the dishes. I intended to hold my plate lower that they serving bowl...I even thought I was... but then SMACK! Mrs. Anderson smacked me on the ass with her paddle. I got a round of applause for being the first on to be spanked but rest assured, I was not the last one to be spanked. We all had a great time with it.

My favorite trail sign to date

On my way to the Anderson's in the early morning before it got hot. Seeing water is so exciting these days

I left Hiker Heaven on my own and ran into my trail family at the Anderson's. So, instead of taking another rest day, I left at 4 am the next morning to begin the reroute around the old fire burn. This meant many miles of road walking.

this area used to be thriving. But then the lakes dried up and the tourists quit coming. The dry lakebed is in the background. I passed several dry lakes. Now the towns are just hanging on and rely on the PCT hikers for an income source.

We got to the Rock Inn just in time for them to open. The group stopped to eat but I did not feel like it. It was still cool and I wanted to get more miles in so I continued on by myself. I took a real siesta and felt great at 4:30 when I took off again after napping for several hours. 

Big News! Almost 20% completed.

The landscape was lush for some of the hike but as I got closer to my resupply, it got flatter and more monotonous.

I resupplied in Hiker Town. It is a strange place. Hotter than hell. A man bought a property that had been a movie set. So this mostly baren hunk of land has a house and a fake town. So I rented a "building" from Bob and slept for part of the day and packed for my next section. My room said "Hotel" but it was nothing but an empty room inside. I was not much cooler than the outside but it was out of the sun and that was so worth $10

I never did take a shower...I just hosed off at the water spigot

That evening at 5:30 I took off along the aqueduct. It was a good time to leave. I hiked till 10 pm, got 6 hours of sleep. Got up at 4:30 just when my "trail family" was walking by. They left at midnight and only got 3 hours of sleep before hand so they were pretty tired. I felt great! 

I mean I walked on the aqueduct, the actual aqueduct. Way cool!

Joe. He plays the guitar and is an actor. A nice and quiet guy.

Morning light and a short walk to my siesta destination

Here is where we start getting into windmills. Lots and lots of windmills!

At 8:30 I was at the bridge and water site. This is my friend Golden Girl trying to lessen the swelling in his legs.

Most everyone gathered under the bridge. It was more social there and it was also hotter there and  they had to move 8 times during the siesta due to the moving sun. There is very little shade out there and I got creative. This culvert was so blissfully quiet and cool. I had to put a light shirt on! No one else had to do that.

At 3 pm my friend Meercat came running to us. The owner of Case Del Luna had just arrived with cold soda, hot pizza and snow cones. I had some of each. I was my first soda on the trail and I know the snow cone was nothing but corn syrup and food coloring but it was so perfect that I wanted to be a part. This is the bridge shadow at 6pm when I took off for the day. Most of the day the shadow was much smaller and they were packed in like sardines.

I saw several of these strange bug while night hiking. I also saw glitters of what looked like diamonds on the ground. Upon inspection I discovered they were spiders and their eyes were glinting so bright and clear. I also have been running into rattle snakes during the day. Every time I see one, I thank it for not biting me and send it lots of love. So far so good,

The other animal that I see a lot at night is the jumping mouse. They are so darn cute but a little dumb. They run around in front of me in a tizzy and just can't figure out how to get off to the side. I think I mistakenly kicked one the other night. It scared the shit out of me and I ran for the next 50 feet.

I have enough water but was quite grateful to see this anyway. I drank a liter and gave myself a better margin for error. This was a very dry stretch.

Some areas are simply packed with windmills! Mojave is so windy and barren. I don't think I will move here anytime soon.