Elevation: 3265 ft
Trail Miles: 477 miles
I woke up this morning to ominous clouds, but that was a good thing.
We spent an amazing 2 zero days in Agua Dulce. The Saufleys have established a true "Hiker Heaven." The "required" stop in Agua Dulce started with a beer, followed by a hot shower, and a great barbeque. The rest of the stay included mostly relaxing.
Ammenities of this fine establishment included:
Shower
Laundry
Horses
Dartboard
Three big tents with cots and couches
Trailer
House
Firepit
Many "hiker boxes" to swap, find, or leave gear, food, fuel, toys, and clothes
Two of the three nights we had a fire. The first night we sat around passing a guitar from person to person listening to everyone sing and play. The next night around the fire Jeff and Donna Saufley told their great story about how they got started as the ultimate Trail Angels.
All in all the place pulls you in and gives you a real home. This pit stop is like the Hotel California. "You can check out, but you can never leave."
But the trail beckoned, and I awoke to ominous clouds. Granted this is generally a bad thing, but knowing that we were going to be hiking through the hottest section of the trail over the next few days we felt blessed. This "June Gloom" is supposed to keep the temperature in the 70s all week.
After packing and catching one final intown breakfast, we started north again. J.C., Jean Luc, "Nabor J", "Chowder", Jon, Debi, and I hit the trail around 9am. Clouded over it was smooth sailing.
As we climbed 2000ft, we seemed to find ourselves in a similar landscape as the earliest part of the trail. The dense chapparel had changed a bit now. The ordinarily green Chamise had started to bloom, so the tips of the green branches now had tiny pale green flowers, too small to notice unless you looked closely. But the hillside was a quilt of fabric from dark to light sage greens.
As we crested and dropped onto the northern side of the hill the plant life changed into a more lush array. Walking through shady groves on Interior Live Oaks and tall grass I felt removed from what I have experienced thus far of the desert.
After taking a second breakfast the process repeated itself as we climbed over another hill. Somewhere along the way I noticed that both sides of the trail had flowers lining the path. The colors would change, but most often small white flowers kissed our feet, as if some garden enthusiast had planted millions of these flowers, just for the hikers.
Shortly after lunch we started the final 13 miles of the day. Around six miles into it we came across an amazing Water Cache in the desert. A skeleton dressed up hung in a tree guiding us into a little hidden grove in the manzanita trees. Inside were five chairs, a pink flamingo, a palm tree, a water cache, and a cooler full of soda and beer. Though we had just had a break an hour before, this place deserved some relaxing. The eight of us sat listening to music, drinking, and dancing, as we forgot for a moment the aching feet.
As the clouds were overhead, it was rather chilly, so the three of us continued down the trail half an hour later, with the remaining six soon to follow. Climbing up into the hills again, the wind started blowing the clouds up the hillside slowly. Soon we found ourselves walking in the clouds with limited views of the trail to ahead.
Walking along the path, slightly chilly, we crested a third hill and started our decent to the ranger station. Just as we reached the road, a woman pulled over her car popped the trunk and said "hop in." Slightly confused we eventually figured out that she was the Trail Angel we had heard about from The Saufleys, the same one who put together the wonderful water cache we had enjoyed 2 hours earlier.
She took us to her house where several other thru-hikers were already preparing a great tacosalad dinner. We all took a shower and enjoyed our dinner while listening to the Andersons tell their story of how they started be Trail Angels.
Fed, showered, and ready for bed I have set my tent up outside in a grove of oaks and manzanitas. Tomorrow they plan on making us all breakfast and returning us to the trail.
Happy Trails, Inner Peace, & Harmony
Jeff and Donna Saufley share their story
Ominous Morning Clouds
Pretty Flowers
Hiker Oasis provided by the Anderson's
The Anderson's share their story