Start: 2192.4
Stop: 2215
Today’s miles: 22.6
Total PCT miles: 1931.6
Today was-overall-a good day! The laughing with Marquis in our misery is really what my soul needed to finish this thing out. We didn’t make it as far as we planned, but we did get breakfast in town and take several long breaks.. so, who cares. I’ll get to Mexico when I get to Mexico. Even if I am on a “deadline” I created for myself. Ha!
We woke up at 5:45 again and left just before 6:30. Apparently, when I get out of my tent to pee first thing, before packing, I end up packing slower than when I force myself to hold it until my stuff is all packed.. but this morning there was no waiting until my stuff was packed.
The moon was still full and bright in the sky as we got up and got our stuff together. The first light starting to creep up from the opposite horizon by 6:15. The valley below, where we could see the lights of town before bed last night were blanketed by clouds that didn’t quite reach us up on the high above hillside. It looked incredible. As we started hiking, the trail wound its way down into those clouds, as the sun was lifting into the sky, creating the most beautiful of sunrises.
We switchbacked down into the valley and the clouds covering it.. my hair got damp by misty rain drops that never really fell. It was a really cool experience, and really nice to not be already sweating. It was chilly and there were no bugs. I was happy! The trail had some overgrown bushes to contend with, but I made myself push through without too much complaining.
We hit the main road and started our trail walk through the town of Agua Dolce. I loved it. It looks like a wealthier town than the previous one we walked through, with each home on a lot more land, and more like ranches with the big gates and horses everywhere. It felt like a western cowboy town with modern homes. Really beautiful homes, and plenty of horses.
The “downtown” was a bit sad though. They didn’t have much. Only a liquor/convenient store, that Marquis resupplied his snacks from, a hardware store, that I got my fuel canister from, and 3 small restaurants. Two were open for breakfast, and the pizza place didn’t open until 11am. It was only 9:30, so we settled on second breakfast, since we both had already eaten our trail breakfast.. aka: a Poptart.
There’s no humanly possible way to pass up restaurant food on trail when you are literally walking right past it.. seriously impossible. Plus I make it my personal mission to boost whatever local economy I’m in.. my budget be damned. After breakfast we continued the road walk the rest of the way through town. The trail turned off the road and in through Vasques Rocks State Park. This place was seriously neat. The rocks jutted out of the ground in odd angles that were really fascinating to see. I wish they showed up on camera better.. you know I have a trillion pictures of them.
The trail went through the main parts of the park and then continued on through the backside, around a nasty looking creek and through a tunnel under a main highway-Antelope Valley Freeway. I was happy we weren’t playing chicken trying to cross that thing. Coming out of the other side was gross and overgrown, requiring a bit of phone navigation to find the trail again.
Then, the trail seemed well maintained and twisted and winded up and through many smaller mountains. We crossed a train track and a very nasty creek that smelled of raw sewage-and even looked a little like it too, and came up to another two lane highway with the road going down to a KOA.. that I almost convinced Marquis to go to. We could have done laundry, ate ice cream, showered.. but thankfully he has his head on straight and even when he isn’t loving the trail, he knew we needed to push on.
We crossed that road and immediately got to an area with a pit toilet, that we both happily took advantage of. Then, we pushed the last 4 miles to camp. We were going to continue on, but there wouldn’t be water for awhile, so it made sense to camp here with a clean and flowing creek so we could adequately fill up and not have to tote a ton of extra water farther up this big climb we’ll have first thing in the morning.
We set up camp, one on either side of the small creek. We can talk to and see each other, but the water is flowing between us. After we unpacked I went to his side to eat dinner with him before coming to lay down. I saw a tiny mouse, so we made sure our food is well tucked away, and we’re both a little nervous they might chew through our tents during the night. I really hope not!
The water sounds nice and it’s a little chilly, so something tells me I’ll probably still sleep pretty good tonight, with or without tiny mice coming to visit. And with that, I think I’ll get to it. Goodnight!