The Adventures of...: Days 27-28

Day 27, 18 miles, endpoint PCT mile 462

We left the KOA early and the weather did not disappoint. We did some climbing up and over a hill right off the bat, and it was already hot. About halfway up a large hillside, we started hearing the roar of lions. Yes, lions. Next to the KOA is a wildlife preserve founded by actress Tippi Hedren that houses all sorts of exotic animals, including lions. If you have ever wondered what happened to Michael Jackson's Bengal tigers, they are there, too.

After some hot miles we entered Vazquez Rocks State Park. This was an awesome area with amazing and unique rock formations and structures. There have been many movies and TV shows filmed in Vazquez Rocks over the years, including Blazing Saddles and Star Trek.

Immediately after leaving the park we found ourselves in Agua Dulce where the trail is the main road through town. Agua Dulce is a very small horse ranch community with a grocery store, a pizza place, a cafe, and not much else.

We walked a mile off trail to get to the home of the Saufleys, where a large trailer and several sun canopies are provided for hikers to spend the night. They have the capacity to house 50 hikers a night; we learned later that afternoon they were already full. We got ourselves a little bit organized, dumped trash, washed dishes, and checked out the hiker boxes. We were also lucky to run into the Canadians Darren and Danielle, a couple we had been seeing frequently for awhile the first couple of weeks but hadn't seen since. After catching up with them, we went back into town for grocery shopping and pizza.

It was still hot, so we didn't leave the pizza place until 7pm. By then the air was much cooler, which was good since we faced a 2,000 foot climb back up the hills out of town. Once the climb was over, it was almost midnight and we were exhausted. We decided to cowboy camp for the first time--no tent. I had visions of ants crawling all over me, but was so tired I didn't care. We plan on getting up early in the morning to again avoid the heat, and do some more night hiking if we have to.

Small monument marking completion of the PCT.

Moon and Carla in the golden hour.

Trail views.

Vasquez State Park - this would have been a cool place to take pictures in good light.

Trail views... actually road walking views.

Sunset - Had to make the best out of the best light of the trip in a bad location. There is a huge industrial park behind the bush.

Trial views.

Day 28, 16 miles, endpoint PCT mile 478/Casa De Luna

We woke up after less than five hours of sleep and caught the sunrise. We also wanted to do everything we could to hike before it was too hot out. At 10am when we reached "The Oasis," a water cache at mile 471 that is maintained by Terry and Joe Anderson. The Andersons live two miles off the PCT and are big-time hiker supporters. At the cache, located under a shady pocket of trees, we enjoyed fresh water, soda, and beer, all courtesy of the Andersons. It was blazing hot, so we had another extended midday break until 3pm.

Josh and I reluctantly started hiking again and barely made the 7 miles to the trailhead near the Andersons. The heat was a killer and my feet felt like they were absolutely falling apart.

At the trailhead were two friendly former hikers who were helping out and shuttling hikers the two miles to the Anderson's home, which is nicknamed the Casa De Luna. There we enjoyed a shower and a great taco salad provided to all of the hikers. The Andersons' property borders on National Forest land, and we are currently camped deep in their backyard/the national forest. Tomorrow they will do pancakes and coffee. This is definitely one of the best off-trail stops we have had yet.

Besides pancakes, tomorrow brings yet another PCT closure (due to a past forest fire) and another detour. We have a 20 mile road walk to look forward to, but it is all part of the adventure.