The first movement in our room was made by Woody, he got op early for breakfast. Early means around 8… We started moving at 9, everyone got another shower and packed the bagpack to head out.

 

We had breakfast at the Evergreen cafe. Like everyone in this town they are very hickerfriendly.  The servings were huge! Not your standard huge, but just uneatably huge.

 

After breakfast I went to the post office to get my new sleeping quilt and to the hardware store to check out the hiker box. I wanted to send my sleeping bag back home, mat 58$ was too much for a 70€ sleeping bag which was used and I might never use it again. So I left it in the hiker box for someone else.

 

Resupply was done very fast, 5 full days of food, nothing special and a small package of wine for the first night 🙂

 

Until everyone was done it was 15h00 and we got a hitch right away without having to wait for a long time. The guy was a bit strange, offered us some whiskey and took a huge shot too, then offered us some weed and smoked some too. All while driving…

 

We only did 8 more miles that day, but damn what miles, only uphill to camp just under the summit of Mount Baden Powell.

 

 

The first night with my new sleeping quilt was fantastic! Nice, cosy and warm 😀  It was not a problem at all to get out in the morning and go to the summit before 6h00.

 

The view was gorgeous! Some people camped up on the summit but left when I arrived.

 

 

Half an hour later Julia, Manuel and Woody arrived and after taking a few pictures we set of. We walked along the ridge of the mountain for a few miles before we had a long way down the mountain.

 

After a streetcossing we had to get up to another mountain with about 1200feet in elevation gain just to get down to that street again a few miles further.

 

A closure due to an endangered yellow legged frog forced us to take a roadwalk for about 3 miles. Boring, hot and not good for my shin I walked over it as fast as possible to arrive at the campground quite early at 16h30.

 

We did set our tents up, trew away our trash an because we had running water there we washed ourselves a bit. Then we collected pinecones to make a fire in the designated areas later.

 

 

More and more hikers arrived and finally we were about 15 people sitting around the fire eating our dinner. It was a Mac&Cheese party because half of the hikers decided to have the same food 🙂

 

 

Right after hikermidnight I got into my tent and slept right away.

 

 

The next day we got up early because we had a big day to hike. But first we had to get back up to the trail. 2 miles and we were ready to do more miles 🙂

 

But the first 5 miles were only climbing and I had second breakfast at the first top. After the climb there was a long downhill stretch where I passed the 400 mile maker.

 

 

The day was long, but the trail was in a good condition so it was not too exhausting. While hiking I realised that the campsite we wanted to camp would be super exposed to the wind and that 3 miles after the tentsite there should be a fire station where we could order Pizza. So went went for that.

 

 

The last 3 miles were not funny at all, I had to push myself hard because I don’t like hiking that late when it’s getting dark and cold again. Especially when you have 26miled / 42km in your legs…

 

But I finally arrived and it is true, the trail provides. Just as I showed up the pizzadelivery man was there and took our order right away.

 

While we waited, most of us set up their tents, but I thought it would be too windy and I just cowboycamped next to the fire station.

 

 

The pizza and beer were quite expensive, 40$ for 2 people with 6 beers seems to be way to much but at least the pizza was delicious 🙂

 

It was freezing and I got into my sleeping bag right after dinner. 1 hour after that I noticed a wierd noise, but it took me another 15 minutes to realise that water was dripping fron the roof onto my sleeping quilt… a quick change in position solved the problem and the rest of the night was more or less ok.

 

The morning was as cold as the evening has been and it was hard to get into the cold clothes.

 

I left at 8h00 and pushed from the beginning on to arrive early because it would only be an 18 mile day to a Ranger station where we wanted to camp.

 

After 2 hours of good pace I met a guy, straight mike and had a 30 min conversation with him. Then another 15 min with Dan. Half an our later I ate second breakfast and flew with my drone and called my girlfriend because I havent had service in days.

 

Because I had leftover beer from yesterday I had tortillas and beer for breakfast at 11h00.

 

This took me another hour and I gave up on pushing and continued hiking with a reasonable pace. But nothing lets you hike faster than the expectation of a toilet in a few miles when you really don’t want to take another shit behind a bush 😉

 

I arrived at the Ranger Station around 16h30 and I got a cold coke which is the most refreshing thing to get after a whole day of hiking.

 

I set up my tent and just after that, Ron showed up and asked if someone wanted hotdogs. Later he gave us icecream too and sat next to us to talk about this years trail. He has done it 4 times so far and helps people as a trail angel.

 

 

It was windy and cold again so I did hide in my tent at 18h00.

 

Tomorrow will be another 18 miles to Agua Dulce and hiker heaven 🙂