A bunch of the hikers organized a huge breakfast this morning of bacon, eggs, homefries, pancakes and fruit salad, washed down with “cowboy coffee” made in a big pot, since the coffee machine wouldn’t work.  Yum!  We all ate like pigs.  The dogs, of course, were interested in everything we did, and after breakfast, “Buddy” followed Bill and I into the RV and made himself at home! 

Donna's flowers--with tents for thruhikers in background

A group of us got organized to ride “Big Red” into town, and while people were getting themselves together, I walked around the garden, enjoying Donna Saufley’s flowers. 

"Big Red" ready to roll

 Then we all crowded into the van, with Panda at the wheel and Bethany with the map, acting as navigator.  Most of the rest of the day, we spent locating items we needed.  Bill got new shoes, I got trek poles (TWO of them, this time), we got another pair of patella straps so we could both have two.  Bill got his watch fixed at a jewelers (now that was a WEIRD moment!  We were in a very upscale mall, in our now-clean hiking clothes, and Bill’s beard is, let’s say, grown out some, and we walked into this very fancy jewelers to get a new watch battery and have it installed.  We got some VERY strange looks!). 

Thruhikers at In 'n Out

 Lunch was at In ‘n Out–best hamburgers and fries in the west!  For the first time in my life, I ate a “Double-Double” with fries and a milkshake–and no worries about calories!

In the late afternoon, we were back at Hiker Heaven, where all of us had giant “clean-out-the-refrigerator” salads for dinner.  Bill and I worked on the logistics of our change of plans.  I still felt very sad at not going straight on through the Sierras, but I told myself, “Don’t take it for granted that exactly at the time we were here at Hiker Heaven, that thruhiker came back from the Sierras and warned us all about how bad it was.  If we had gotten here two days earlier, we would have missed him, and who knows what kind of serious trouble we might have ended up in.  This is God’s mercy to us, and I need to respect Him and be grateful.”

The evening entertainment tonight turned out to be a visit from Lawrence the Trail Gorilla (we actually did meet him before, at the highway before the Desert Divide).  He told us many tales of his amazing efforts at improving and maintaining the PCT in Southern California.   He is the one who put up the little sign showing where to turn off for Eagle Rock.  He put up little signs pointing out where poison oak was so that nonCalifornians would know what to look for.  He put up the shower in the tree at Tule Springs….etc.  Wow!

And by the way, all the hikers are getting a good laugh out of a list that Donna Saufley posted.   Here it is:

10 WAYS TO SPOT A FORMER THRU-HIKER:   10) Wears the same clothes every single day .     9) Sleeps on the floor next to the bed. 8) Ignores the toilet–prefers to dig little holes in the backyard.    7) In the kitchen, a string hangs from the ceiling with a tuna can and stick tied on.      6) Puts on gaiters to walk to the mailbox.   5) Uses stairs at work rather than elevator–insists upon taking a snack break upon reaching the top floor.  4) Wooden floors are all pockmarked from pole tips.   3) 40% of household food budget goes to pop tarts and snickers bars.   2) Declares each morning that “this will be another zero day.”   1) Says things like, “Hey Mom/Honey, can you slack me to the mail?”

Well, number 2 applies to us!  We have decided to take one more zero day here to let Bill’s feet heal as much as possible!  Donna Saufley has a guestbook, and everybody writes in it.  Bill wrote the “lyrics” to a song he made up while we were on the trail and heading for Agua Dulce.  The tune is “Oh, I Come from Alabama With My Banjo on My Knee”.   It goes something like this: “We are marching to the Saufley’s, to the Saufley’s we will go,  Our feet, they are a’hurtin’, but our pace we will not slow.   We are going to the Saufley’s now, for food ‘n drink ‘n rest,   We are going to the Saufley’s,  ’cause, the Saufley’s are the best!”  (Chorus):   AGUA DULCE!  The hikers’ heaven on earth!  If you’ve got a list of trail angels, the Saufley’s rank is FIRST!”

Sun. June 5     Miles today: 12.2     Total so far: 454.4     So. CA D

This morning we woke up in the fog!  Our sleeping bags (AND our socks we hung up to “dry” last night!!) were all wet.  We should have put up the tarp!  Oh well, it was only 12 miles to Agua Dulce and Hiker Heaven–no need to fuss, no need to rush.  Soon we were down at the bottom of Soledad Canyon, near the banks of the Santa Clara River, where we got water at the RV park.  Then we tippytoed through the sleeping tents and RV’s back to the PCT. 

The PCT has its own private RR crossing!

At the edge of the park, I noticed an amusing “creation”–a TALL stack of unused picnic tables.  How did they do it?  With a forklift, or what?  And it was also fun to reach the PCT’s own “private railroad crossing”, complete with special sign.  The only downer was the sadly vandalized monument right next to it that was supposed to honor “the completion of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail.”  I think that monument should have been located somewhere far from “vandal range”.

Now we were getting into the Vasquez Rock formations, home to outlaws in the good ‘ol days.  The rocks were totally awesome!  Formations like these are overwhelming evidence for the violent worldwide catastrophe of Noah’s flood described in Genesis.  Partway through, we met a very friendly, harmless snake right by the trail, who posed very nicely so I could take his picture.  Then we had some challenging going.  First, we had to get under the Antelope Valley freeway via a long, dark tunnel.  On the other side, the trail was a total mess!  The guidebook said to “follow the dry creekbed”–but it wasn’t dry!  It was a proper creek with a dense edging of willows and poison oak!  We had to half-bushwhack, half rock-hop our way through, sidling around the poison oak as best we could.  Not fun!  But we made it, and wowee,  we were officially into Vasquez Rocks County Park.  What a place!  I went a bit crazy with taking pictures!   We found out later that a number of thruhikers totally skipped this section and went straight to Hiker Heaven from the highway.  They really missed out on a fantastic part of the PCT!

At our last creek crossing, we met 3 horses with riders.  Turned out 2 of the horses were young “newbies” learning to be big brave trail horses.  The newbies were afraid to cross the creek and were snorting and skittering around.  We were on one side of the creek, and they were on the other side.  “What should we do?” we called across.  The lead rider said, “Just stand still and TALK so that the horses all know you are people.”  So we did, and after some awkward minutes of more snorting and fussing, the 2 newbies skittered across the creek, and the riders said, “OK, you can move now.”  I did not envy the riders of those young horses!  They are braver than I am!

For lunch, we stopped in the park picnic area and literally ate every last bit of food we had (mostly crackers and peanut butter) before beginning the last part of the march into Agua Dulce and Hiker Heaven where our next resupply was waiting.  When we reached town, a friendly lady named Peg came up to us and offered us a place to stay at her house!  She seemed disappointed when we told her we were headed for the Saufley’s and Hiker Heaven.  Just then, along came a big red van which stopped, rolled down a window, and a head stuck out–“Headed for Hiker Heaven?” they asked.  “Yup.”  “Well, hop in, and we’ll give you a ride.”  Good thing they did–turned out that the Saufley’s is over a mile from town and the PCT. 

Clean Bill in clean Saufley Electric shirt

The friendly thruhikers who arrived ahead of us quickly got us settled in.  We were worried about food–we had ZERO–but it turned out to be no problem.  There was food everywhere, and if it’s not labelled with someone’s name, it’s fair game.  The hikers organize big breakfasts and dinners with what’s available.  So we got showers–ahhh!–and clean clothes provided by Mrs. Saufley while she washed our dirty ones.  (She won’t let anybody TOUCH her washing machine!).  There were about 20 hikers staying here right now, accommodated in a large trailer, an RV (where we ended up) and large white party tents plus a random collection of other tents.  Everyone has at least a “camp cot” to sleep on.  The yard has fruit trees and a beautiful cactus garden.

I told Mrs. Saufley about Bill’s sore feet, and she promptly set him up with an Epsom salts foot soak, while I helped Anna (yes, of Josh ‘n Anna) to mend the knee on her hiking pants where she tore it in a fall on the trail.  Mrs. Saufley left for an evening horseback ride on a HUGE horse, while Mr. Saufley worked in the yard.

PCT hiker barbeque

At dinner time, hikers started coming out of the kitchen in the trailer with big platters of “barbeque makings”, and we had a FEAST.  I was so hungry that I ate 2 big hamburgers, a big hot dog, baked beans, a croissant, and an apple.  We also had lots to drink.  Some hikers were blowing back a lot of wine and beer, but we pretty much stayed with juice and soda.  There was much sharing of trail tales, and people told about what they did for a living when they’re not hiking. 

This is what happens if you sit down at Hiker Heaven!

And then–there were the DOGS…the Saufleys have SEVEN of them, all found at various places along the PCT, abandoned and starving in the desert or mountains.  PCT hikers took them in tow and the poor little dogs followed them here, where they are adopted and loved by the Saufleys.  All the dogs are loving and sweet and want LOTS of petting.  If you sit down at Hiker Heaven, you are fair game for the dogs, and will soon be finding a nose in your lap!  The most persistent “pet me, pet me” of the dogs was little Bitsy, and then there was visiting thruhiker dog Chaco who was constantly bugging us all to come play with him.

After dinner and washing dishes, there were lots of conversations going on, including with Donna Saufley, who is very energetic, athletic, organized, and VERY tidy, but yet very nice.  She really loves the hikers, even when she is kindly bossing them around.  Jeff Saufley, her husband, is very gentle and warm and attentive and also very hardworking.  They are a great team.

But the biggest excitement of the evening was when a hiker came in fresh from the High Sierras.  Everyone gathered around to hear the latest on the snow and conditions there!  The guy said he had a very tough but exciting time in TONS of snow (“hardly any bare ground anywhere” he said), but what finally stopped him and made him decide to bail out and wait awhile before going on were the creek crossings.  “All the creeks are unfordable” he said. “You’d be taking your life in your hands even trying to cross the small ones.”  We all knew that there had been 200% of normal snowfall last winter, and now it was all starting to melt.   “How did you get across?” we all asked.  “Because there are so many fallen trees up there this year–I was always able to find one to get me across the creeks” was the answer.   He told us that he was never lost, was always able to navigate OK in spite of the deep snow, but after a few days of barely making any mileage, he’d had enough, and left with the plan to skip ahead to Oregon and come back to California later in the year when the Sierra snow was more reasonable.  To add to what he said, some of the hikers had been listening to the news on TV, and it was reporting flooding in Yosemite Valley because of the huge snowmelt volume,  and that Tuolemne Meadows (where we had planned a resupply) would not open till sometime in JULY!  Yikes!

Bill and I retreated to our “home” in the RV and discussed what to do.  It was a wrenching thought to not just do the PCT straight through as we planned.  But we also know that we are not twenty-somethings with energy and strength to burn, and the prospect of such horrendous conditions made us hesitate.  We know that God takes care of us and He will protect us, but we also look both ways before we cross a street, and don’t cross if we see a car coming.  This was sort of in that category.   So after a lot of thinking and praying we decided that when we reach Tehachapi, we will leave the California PCT and head for Oregon, continue north to Canada, then come back and finish up California.  It really hurt to decide this–I was into “We can do it, yes we can–we can get through the Sierras!”  but Bill said, “Be real, we can’t handle it.  Let’s be sensible.”  So we lay down on nice soft beds and tried to wrap our minds around what was up ahead.  We trust that this is what God wants us to do.