Miles 358-378
I awoke this morning to find my tent covered in condensation. I had even left one of the doors open. It happens with these single wall tents I just don’t think any of us thought it would slow as bad in that little spot though. Laura and I packed up and Justin kept sawing logs which is usually the norm. We woke up just enough to tell him we were headed out and went about our day. Laura and I were hiking by 8am. I think he caught up to us about an hour later.
I had heard only a handful of hikers pass by as we packed up. Early birds!!!!! I asked Laura if she could do a ’20’ today and she said she could. Since camping and water are still scarce I saw that we could get to a spring in 6 miles and then a place called Casa de Luna in a town named Green Valley. It’s basically like Hiker Heaven but with a slightly different feel. It just one of those places hikers is a “must stop”. So we set our sights here.
We took break around 10( my first lunch). Then again at 1pm (my second lunch). In the middle of that scorching hot part of the day we climbed a 2 mile hill with an elevation gain of almost 1,000 feet. Nothing in comparison to some of the other things we’ve climbed but I’m pretty sure I was going to die. Okay, so that’s being dramatic but I’m pretty sure I wanted to crawl under every manzanita tree and wait out the sunshine before I finished climbing.
I tried to ration my water today which is never a good idea. Thankfully before I started the climb there was a water cache at the road crossing of Bouquet Rd. I grabbed a liter of water so I wouldn’t go into panic mode as I hiked uphill. Most hikers have some sort of anxiety about what they carry. Laura says hers is food. Mine is water, then food. Shrink said his is definitely food as well.
So after the climb we had 9 miles left to the road crossing in Green Valley. I had taken my shoes off for about 30 minutes and all was doing well. I wish I could have kicked into ‘power hour’ as Justin and Laura call it but I wasn’t feeling it. I was gentle in my shoes all day as I was concerned my feet would blister with the new socks and shoes combo. I hadn’t planned on breaking shoes in on a 20 mile day. Whooops!
When the day was complete I met up with Fireman and Justin who were waiting for us at San Frisquito Valley Road. I quickly threw my pack down and took off my shoes and socks. The boys laughed at my concern as I didn’t have any blisters. Fireman had told me at one point he had counted 18 blisters on his feet! All I had been feeling was a little bit of tenderness on the balls of my feet! I made it through another day of no blisters. Whew!
So Laura made her way to the road and we stuck our thumbs out for a few minutes with no luck. Since it’s usually easier for girls to get a hitch, we went to the road and the boys hung out by the curb–cause that’s not a creepy situation to roll up on for a driver. Before we know it, a Subaru coming from the direction we need to go pulls up and the driver opens up the back hatchback. In the back she had a cooler with sodas and also offered us some candy. Her name was NannyPants. She said she had already dropped off 15 other hikers to Casa de Luna today. She also said she’d been doing the shuttle rides just on her time off whenever she can. She had her dog DJ with her so we all got some doggy snuggles in too.
When we arrived at Casa de Luna, Terri was not home. So we read the rules and made ourselves at home, I mean at camp. We grabbed a Hawaiian print shirt and walked “through 2 gates” and down the trail. The trail leads you back into the manazita trees where we setup our tents. I know the photos ant do it justice but there’s at least 30 hikers here all tucked in her backyard forest. Terri leaves out paints if you want to paint a rock message and just asks that you have fun for the night. She feeds all the hikers nightly with nachos and evidently tomorrow I think we will be having pancakes. I’m not sure how long they’ve been hosting hikers like this, but it’s been quite a few years.
The four of us walked to the grocery store for beer and snacks before dinner was finished. It’s hard to chat with so many hikers and especially since we all have a tendency to gravitate to only a few other people. Justin had hiked with Fireman (and Shrink) earlier in the hike but hadn’t hung out with him until Hiker Heaven on Wednesday. Shrink joined us a bit later for beers as he was one of the later arrivals at Casa de Luna. We all stayed up past 9pm which is usually too late for hikers but the 5 of us had fun. Shrink is from Miami, he actually used to be in mental health but now he’s an arborist. And Fireman is from Vale, Oregon where he is actually a fireman during the summers. Us girls walked back to our tents slightly before the boys did. I had no problem finding the spot, but Justin was all giggles as he and Fireman got lost in the dark maze of trees.
Overall a great little stop. Lots of hikers but I guess I’m getting used to that. After coffee and pancakes I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. One day at a time!!! The days of night hiking are potentially coming up. The moon is almost full again. It could be tomorrow for the first night hike.
oh yeah…. saw this snake. Not sure if it was injured but it just hunkered down when we all moved past it.
KLubs on a Long Dusty Walk 
“Justin was sawing logs.” Lol! Sounds familiar!
Love these pics!
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