Well, it’s already Day 3… but I’m sure you’d all like to hear what has happened in the last 72ish hours.

The Saturday drive from Palm Desert was filled with a few stops. Kel and I popped into the Paradise Cafe (which is just off the PCT a few miles) for lunch. We chatted with 3 hikers there who were well into their journeys as the cafe is at mile 151. From there we drove through the smaller towns, enjoying the beautiful farms and made one more stop in Warner Springs. After chatting with Pillsbury & Charlie Brown at 2 Foot Adventures, we each purchased some new sunglasses. GoodRs they are!!! Kelly didn’t want to show up for dinner empty handed so we stopped in at the Julian Pie Company for an apple pie. There’s a place in Julian that gives free pie to the hikers so I’ll be looking forward to that slice when I am through in a few more days.

Dinner at Judys was perfect. Chicken, burgers, coleslaw, beans, and of course pie for dessert. Her home is lovely and she and her husband John do a wonderful job of helping out the hikers. Kelly was able to stay in the house as well and Sunday morning we all drove to the trailhead.

I stayed with 3 other hikers at Judy’s place. Ben & Billy from Kansas, Deb from Seattle and then we met Alfredo (Pasta) from Texas at the trailhead. Pasta hiked like a mad man and I never saw him until Monday morning. I hiked with the other 3 until about mile 4 where they stopped for water and I carried on. From there I chatted with a few others who I passed while they took breaks and at mile 12 when I finally took break, Emily came and sat down with me. She just finished med school in NY and has 5 weeks to hike before she moves to Seattle to start her residency. We get along really well. I told her my plan was to make Lake Morena (20 miles) she wasn’t sure she’d make it but I was super happy to see her when she did.

So as the story continues, Kelly had wanted to share in the first day experience. After I started hiking from the monument, she spent the next hour following us “like the mom who keeps checking on her kids first day at school.” But we were fine and I was fine so she eventually drove to Julian for lunch. After that she scored us a camp spot at Lake Morena Campground, she put on her backpack of supplies, her matching Nampa, Idaho hat and headed down the trail to find me. (The funny part was to come on Monday when I became the missing link of “have you seen Karen” all day). Kelly eventually found me and we hiked into Lake Morena together. I think she covered a good 6 miles and I hiked my personal best of 20 miles.

My very good friend Cam drove down from Las Vegas, brought us dinner from Olive Garden and packed in a little whiskey and Baileys for dessert. Seriously, I have amazing friends. Cam also brought firewood, so we were warm, fed and had a few laughs before I crashed for the night. Kel and I slept in the tent and Cam slept in his truck. We had leftover pasta for breakfast and then we said our goodbyes. I shed a few tears as I walked away through the campground.

day 2

Before leaving the campground I met Laura in the bathroom. She had hiked 20 miles in shorts and got a pretty good sunburn on her legs. We talked a little bit but I wouldn’t catch up to her until that evening.

I ran into Emily just before getting in the trail. It was 930ish so we were both getting a slow start. My plan was to make it 12 miles to Cibbits campground where we could get water and hopefully have an easy day. We started slow and got to know each other a little bit more. We laughed and chatted with other hikers. I just kept trying to remember everyone’s name. Twice during the day we donned our rain jackets as the skies tried to open up on us. Luckily, the wind blew just enough for the clouds to pass but it left us with a cold night in camp.

Finally feeling like I was truly backpacking and was ready to get into my solo rhythm I rolled into Cibbets CG around 530 PM. Laura was the only other hiker there…. and we have the same tent! So as I set up I asked her for a few pointers as it looked like she had a good pitch on hers already. She was moving on to her dinner by the time I was pitching my tent. I couldn’t wait to be sitting down for a break. Emily rolled up shortly there after and it was just us ladies sharing a few laughs. The aches, the pains, the stupid things we’d done that day all par for the course. The temperature dipped below freezing last night. I slept cold which made me want to rethink some options but I haven’t committed to them yet; maybe a warmer sleeping bag and pad or some down pants, I just can’t decide. Nothing that I can do about it right now except check the forecast for where will we be in the next few days and throw on that extra layer of clothes. I’ll figure it out.

Day 3

Since Emily now had 2 really cold nights she ordered a new sleeping bag from REI. She was having it delivered to Mt. Laguna (hoping for Wednesday) so we planned to make Laguna a stop. Sonia, who we’d met earlier on Monday, was in for a day at the lodge as well. We made reservations at Laguna Mt. Lodge, ate at the Pine Valley Cafe just before closing and stopped for a few supplies at the store. Not a bad setup here at Mt. Laguna. Evidently it snowed here on Sunday night, which is partly why we decided on a room.

As Laura catches up with her husband who works at the same company as my brother Glen, I’m here catching up with “you all”. We’ve each had the longest hot shower we could handle, we’ve done our laundry in a bucket and we’ve talked about gear. Now we are onto laughs about how we’ve decided to dry our clothing. The heat is cranked, the fan is on, the door is open and paracord is hanging like a limbo stick held onto the oldest lamp ever made and the dresser drawer held shut with my trekking pole. Sometimes you have to be creative!!!