On To Julian!

The last couple of nights I've slept out under the stars. I've been so exhausted that I've fallen into the habit of going to bed at sunset. That means I am in my sleeping bag watching the sunset and also awake with the sunrise. This morning was an amazing sunrise over the desert below me.

The day's hiking started out easily enough. The trail followed the ridge top and was fairly level for the first 11 miles. I even found a way to help alleviate the heat rash. Whenever a breeze sprang up I would simply unzip my fly and air out. Incidentally, this is also an interesting conversation starter for any hikers you might come across.

Most of this countryside is scrub brush and manzanita. Everywhere you look vegetation is encroaching on the trail, which is why there are a great number of trail workers in this area. I passed one early in the day. He was an older gentleman, probably in his late sixty's. I was impressed with how much trail he cleared by himself. Later I ran across four younger workers, about my own age, from the Student Conservation Association. They had been on the job for 8 days and it was an amazing difference. The section of trail they were working on was smooth and easy going. By contrast the section they have not yet arrived at was difficult to pass. Scrub brush was overgrowing the trail and every step meant brush scratching my sunburned legs. I was sure to profusely thank each trail worker for everything they had done. One of these days I will come back to work on the trail and repay the favor.

Today there was a very little water to be had. Trail angels had left a cache of water earlier in the day from which I drew a quart of water. Later in the day, with about 8 miles to go, there was a fire suppression water tank with a spigot for hikers. That spigot was the last water source for the next 32 miles.

A quick note on vandalism: I was hiking up the pioneer mail trail, one of the many smaller trails that join the PCT for a short section. This trail was beautiful, following an old road high on the cliffs above the desert. The road had mostly been covered by rock slides and washed away, which made hiking along it feel like I was in some post-apocalyptic American landscape. Now you might think that the graffiti on the rocks marred the landscape. Not so. Some of the greatest nuggets of poetic and philosophical wisdom are written there upon the rock. Nuggets like "POT" and "KP sucks dick." I was awed by the pure genius. I imagine someday, when these sages are old and their prime burger flipping days behind them, they will return. "KP sucks dick" will still be there, outlasting us all. And they will say "and my parents never said I would amount to anything. I showed them."

Anyway I made it the 77 miles to highway 78. The last few miles were extremely painful as it was all downhill, and my knees were done for the day. But here I am, the next morning, in Julian. I had a nice meal, I slept in a bed, and I got a shower. So things are looking up!