Wow, I actually SLEPT last night!  I have not really had a solid night’s sleep yet on the trail except at Warner Springs.  (Bill has no problem!  He puts his head down, and he is GONE! At the beginning of the PCT, we had this sweet idea of each night after we were snuggled into our sleeping bags, we could read a chapter of the Bible together.  It hasn’t worked.  Bill can’t read without glasses, so I do the reading, and I read about 3 sentences, and he is snoring!!)  Yesterday, I was feeling so sleep-deprived that at times I felt like I was hiking with my brain on “space patrol”.  Well, the fact that   A) I was actually asleep and  B)I had my hands way down in the sleeping bag to keep them warm, meant that  C)I did not hear the wristwatch alarm go off at 5:00 am!

So at 5:30, Bill was nudging me and saying, “Wake up–it’s daylight!”  Well, I will say this–it sure is easier to get going when you can actually SEE what you are doing!  But oh my, both Bill and I ache all over.  My knees are sore, I have a couple of little blisters, my shoulders hurt…you get the picture.  This PCT is unbelievably tough on us old folks.  We are SO ready for our resupply day at Big Bear City!

Once we got ontrail, poor Bill was limping badly.  His feet really hurt and he has horrible, horrible blisters.  His problems are from crossing San Gorgonio Pass in the heat.  I gave him 2 Motrin, and from experience we know that if you just keep hiking, eventually your feet “numb up”.   We distracted ourselves as we hiked along by looking at the spectacular views of mountains to the west and desert to the east.  Oh, for the camera!  We reached Doble Trail Camp for breakfast, and again, a dry water faucet with a sign saying “Closed till May”.  But we surveyed our water and decided we had enough to make it–barely–the Big Bear City.   There were a couple of other thruhikers camped at Doble, but they were just beginning to get up, all tousled and sleepy, when we left, headed for Van Dusen Canyon Road.

At Van Dusen Canyon, there IS water in Caribou Creek, but we looked at it and said, “No way.”  It looked very polluted.  So we began the long, dusty, hot walk down the road toward toward town.  Car after car passed us by, even though we had our thumbs out, trying to get a ride.  It was really discouraging.  Other hikers had mentioned to us previously that the best way into Big Bear City was to hitch in at the road just before Doble Trail Camp.  They sure were right!   We kept walking and trying to be cheerful about the thought of eventually reaching town.

Finally a husband and wife, with a pickup truck towing 2 horses in a trailer,  stopped and offered us a ride to town.  Hooray!  We climbed into the back of the pickup with the saddles and bridles and hay and stuff.  “Got one beer left in the cooler–you can have it if you want, ” they said, “and there are carrots, too.”  Perfect food pairing–beer and carrots!  We bounced and jounced and munched and sipped all the way down to town and they dropped us right at the post office!   Trail angels with horses–I love it!

Bill went inside to get our box, while I waited on a bench outside.  A man came out and sat down nearby to look at his mail.  “PCT hiker?” he asked.  So we started to talk.  “What are your plans right now?” he inquired.  “Well, get our box, get ice cream, find a place to stay, clean up, and eat, ” I said.  Then I asked him which way to the Motel 6 (a favorite thruhiker destination) and he said, “Well, it’s down that way–quite a ways down–but there’s a nice B & B for the same price only a block away–or if FREE sounds better, you guys are welcome at my place.”  Wow!  When Bill came out, we agreed to go with him.  The man had some errands to run, so he left for half an hour while Bill and I got ice cream and rested in the shade.  (In case you wonder why I keep calling him “the man”, it’s because he didn’t want his name mentioned).

On the way to his house, the man got his wife on the phone and said, “Honey, I’m bringing a couple of hikers home with me.”  Turns out this is normal for them–they are all set up for hikers!  So we were able to shower, do laundry, have a delicious lunch (a “cold collation” to use the Victorian term), and Bill, true to form, was soon involved in helping the man fix some things around the place.  And it was a beautiful place–out in the forest, with mountains all around, and a big green meadow.  The guy and his wife treated us like we were family.  And actually, it sort of DID feel like home, because there are bookcases and books everywhere!  Somebody’s obviously in the middle of a research project–there are ponderous technical tomes open and in piles on the floor.  Ah–a person after my own heart!

Besides doing laundry (and pulling  stubborn tick off Bill) my contribution was to help make dinner and wash the dishes.  We are very comfortable here, and wow, we have met THREE trail angels in only one day!  Tomorrow, the plan is to go to town and get some bigger shoes for Bill (to solve his swollen feet/blister problem) and some patella straps for me (to help my sore knees).  But for tonight, we are grateful to God for so many blessings today.