Mile 401-419 (18 miles)
Elevation 4,972'
Oh my gosh today was incredible. And this was just 2 days after my most epic PCT day ever! My stoke meter is redlining, I think I'm gonna explode!!! Lol. I am so incredibly grateful and blessed to be doing this, and to have met so many amazing individuals along way.
Well today was no different. There is a restaurant called Newcomb's Ranch which is a 2.5ish mile hitch down the highway. It sounded pretty cool so I decided to go there for breakfast and celebrate my 400 miles! It was tough to get a hitch in because there was no traffic heading that way. I just started walking down the highway and the 2nd car that passed me picked me up. Thanks dude!!
Newcomb's Ranch is AMAZING!! It's a huge biker hangout. I took a couple pics of the outside, the locals were telling me it gets way more crowded. Wow!! Lol. I had a bloody mary and coffee, and i ate a delicious veggie omelette with bacon, homefries, and toast. It was soooo yummy! I took a pic of it :) Funny thing is, in everyday life I could never justify eating bacon because of all the fat and calories it had, but the epic thing about being on trail is, I can eat whatever I want! Lol. That is so awesome. I took a pic of the interior of the place, I sat at bar seating, the main dining area is in the room to the right, and there's a huge patio seating area outside.
A few people took interest in what I was doing (I was the only pct hiker there at the time and my pack was in the seat next to me), including an awesome couple who sat next to me. They just bought a new Abarth (a Fiat race car) and were playing around with it in the mountains. They were so awesome, they gave me a ride back to the trail in their new car! I took a pic of it. It was a zippy little thing! Like a cross between a Fiat and a rally car. Anyhow, I think they're reading this blog, thank you so much for giving me a ride!! You guys are awesome!!! Vicky I hope the baby shower went well, and I wish u two all the best with your awesome new car :)
As if the morning wasn't awesome enough already, 10 minutes after I got dropped off at the trailhead, some other hikers show up, and a jeep pulls in, they ask us if we were thru-hikers, then opened a cooler and handed us all beer, grapes, and water!! EPIC!! I have a pic of us with our cans of PBR. Lol. I also took a pic of the awesome couple, they are both Hash House Harriers (google that if you don't know what it is). Their hash names are Lollicock and Cream Puff. Lol. Of course hashers would have beer :). Thank you guys soooo much!! <3
So I didn't get on the trail til noon. Haha. The hiking was ok today. I have a pic of a big yucca plant. Thats the funny looking thing with the flowers on top. Its a very prevalent plant in the desert and i really love it, i think its beautiful. There is also another plant in the area that is not so beautiful, called poodle dog bush. I have a pic of that too. It's kinda self explanatory, the name. It grows in a cluster of shoots and looks like a groomed poodle dog tail. The plant grows in areas that have been hit by fires, and is poisonous. It's like poison oak but waaaay worse, so they say. And the crappy thing about this is that it was all over the trail. There was a particular 4 mile section that just totally sucked. It was everywhere and it took me sooooo long to get around it because I was trying to be so careful not to get any on me. Ugh. I finally got through it, and took baby wipes and wiped down my legs and poles just incase. Man I am so stoked to be done with that stuff!!
I hiked along a dirt road for a while, I watched the sunset the whole time it was so beautiful. What an epic conclusion to an epic day! There was a solar eclipse earlier today, I missed it because I was on the other side of that hill, doing the poodle dog bush dance. Blah.
I finally got to the Mill Creek Fire Station which is ran by the US Forest Service. There was water there yay! The station was devoid of people so I ended up camping there, because it was 9pm and dark and I couldn't really see anything. I later found out I wasn't supposed to camp there, oops. But I was out before anyone showed up. I took a pic of my area, I was on the back lanai (patio) of the fire station. It was nice. :)
Tomorrow i have a 17.5 hot stretch of trail with no water. I'll be packing almost 4 liters of water for that. Ugh my pack is gonna be heavy. Lol. Oh well, it's still better than what I initially started the hike with. :)
Stoked!! Aloha kakou <3
Poodle Dog Bush, LOVE IT!!!
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