We stayed last night in a jewel of a little motel in Los Banos, just off Interstate 5. It was called “Economy Inn” and was obviously a labor of love for the owners. Being a “plant person”, I went nuts over the landscaping of gorgeous succulents. We were on the road by 6:30am, on a very cold, cloudy morning, watching a pink sunrise over very snowy Sierras. The orange orchards were in full bloom— very like driving through perfume. Nearby mountaintops had a light dusting of snow.

We mailed a lot of resupply boxes at Santa Clarita, with very friendly and enthusiastic staff who answered us “Don’t worry! your boxes will make it! We are shipping them with love!” The clouds overhead grew thicker the farther south we went. We had a quick shivery lunch by Camp Pendleton, where we saw Marines in desert camos messing around with tanks on the bluffs above the ocean. We dropped the car off in downtown San Diego and took the trolley, watching carefully for any fellow thruhikers. At last we saw them! A whole group got off the trolley at the same stop we did!

We met Old Goat, an experienced PCT thruhiker, plus others. After that, every trolley that came by dropped off even more hikers, including the famous Billy Goat! A cheer went up from all us PCT alumni, “Billy Goat! Billy Goat!” The poor little rural bus ended up stuffed with hikers and packs. The driver said, “Wow! This time of year I always expect hikers, but you guys are the largest group I’ve ever driven!” We all cheered loudly! But rain was beginning to fall, till by the time we got off at Campo, it was really coming down, and it was so cold you could see your breath. We were the only ones to get off at Campo— everyone else was going to set up camp at Lake Morena, then get rides to the border tomorrow.

We’d been advised to go first to the store, where we got nice hot burritos for supper, and the store owner suggested we go to the Campo history museum, where the caretaker would let us stay in one of the out buildings. The store owner commented about the weather.  “I’ve lived here for 20 years, and I’ve never seen such a cold, miserable April.”  Oh, great! 

At the museum, we couldn’t find the caretaker.  The only guy around was holed up in his very wet little dome tent, and smoking something illegal.  He blearily stuck his head out and told us, “Oh, you can camp anywhere on the property–no worries.”  So we ended up where we are camped tonight very comfortably out of the rain– underneath an old rusty truck trailer. It is a real hobo camp!  Close by to the truck trailer are signs reading, “1875 Hangin’ Tree”  and “Site of famous Campo Shootout.”  No danger of shootouts tonight in the pouring rain and cold!    But the weather report for tomorrow sounds promising— hope it turns out to be right!