Our “oak duff mattress” under the big oak tree gave us a wonderful night’s sleep. The cows thought so, too— they spent the night bedded down around us, but left at dawn. We slept in untill 6:00am before leisurely making our way along Agua Caliente creek, and then on to Warner Springs. First thing was to get a room, clean up a bit, then to breakfast at the golf course restaurant. There were only four golfers— all the rest were hungry hikers! Main topic of conversation was, “Yikes! The snow!” Everyone is debating what to do about the Desert Divide, three days hike from here.  Bill and I have already decided we are going straight through, no matter what.

Next agenda item for me was laundry, and I made it just in time to start my load before someone else. It was so cold (60 degrees) that I brought my sleeping bag to sit in on the laundry room floor. While our clothes dried, I had a great time talking to a hiker from New York state who was once a submariner on the Nautilus! Awesome! Then I headed for the hot pool for a good soak. Bill and I feel like we’ve been “jell-oed.” We had time to read, get our box from the post office, plus some goodies from the hiker box, and then spent awhile trying to figure out why/how so many bees were getting into our room. Before we figured it out, one of the rascals stung me! Oh well!

A continual parade of hikers can be seen here— the ones just coming off the trail look tired and grubby— the rest of us clean and relaxed. At the pool, we enjoyed both the hot soak and the conversation— lots of different topics. Hikers have wide-ranging opinions! Before we went for dinner, Bill discovered that the terrific winds yesterday (we learned at Warner Springs that some of those gusts hit 50mph!) had literally blown his mosquito headnet right out of its storage pocket on the side of his pack. So we will order more fabric and have it sent to Agua Dulce at the Saufley’s, where I can sew him another one.

On the bright side, the weather is improving, the flowers here are beautiful (iris, lilacs, roses…) and at dinner we had a chance to talk with a very interesting chap who was at ADZPCTKO and had a book on hiking the Israel National Trail. He let me borrow it for awhile to look at, and it was fascinating. The author warned in the beginning that his friends often tease him about lapsing into Welsh, because after all, the book is in English (the only English guidebook to the trail) and sure enough, Welsh phrases popped up all over the place (always translated, though).

Note from Alexa: Mae hynny’n ardderchog!

The chap we were talking to has hiked all but the south portion of the trail, and after looking at the book, I can see why— it’s rugged desert country when sometimes the “trail” is a ladder down a canyon wall. But talk about geological beauty— wow! So that was a fun read, and Bill also called ahead to Big Bear City’s “PCT hiker rest stop” to tell him we hoped to be there by May 7. Oh, and the guy with the Israel National Trail book also told us he and friends had been up in the Desert Divide / Fuller Ridge just a short time ago, and he thought we would make it through just fine!

Walk to Rivendell: Still The Barrow-Downs (presumably captured by the Wight!)