Well, TOMORROW we leave for the PCT!  Which is mega-exciting!   But of course, it being our last full day at home, all sorts of stuff had to go haywire.  We had great plans for a half-day hike to the top of Hood Mountain, where we could sign the hiker register with some sort of “hurrah, tomorrow we head for the PCT!” type comment, plus the gorgeous views and a picnic lunch before we headed home and loaded our packs ready to leave tomorrow.   Ah, how romantic!   Of course, it didn’t happen–instead, life happened.

For Bill, most of the day ended up being spent wrassling with our car, which our daughter will be using while we are gone, whenever she goes to San Francisco, since it’s the one that has FastTrak to get across the bridges, and the National Parks Volunteer sticker that gets us free parking at the National Maritime Museum.  The car was making awful noises and desperately needed a new strut up in the right front end.   Bill got it all done in the end, but it took almost all day.   We did manage to get in a one hour walk with packs around the neighborhood, and that was it.   I am very grateful that he managed it–he only had his own improvised setup to work with, and the job actually has a dangerous side to it, since there is a spring with an enormous amount of pressure on it.

Since I did not know when he’d be done,  I kept working on “short stuff” that I could drop at any time to go for our “last practice hike”, plus went to visit two of my junior high Awana kids who were trying to finish their study books before our big Awards Ceremony tomorrow.   And then I discovered that my precious “master list” of everything that goes in my pack, which I guarded assiduously and always kept safe in a file folder, had gone missing.   I still have not found it, and can only hope and pray that I do!

I also carefully studied the Snow and Water Report to see what we’re in for between Campo and Agua Dulce.  Sounds like the stretch up above Idylwild is as nasty and icy as it was when we crossed in 2005.    We didn’t even try to do the Fuller Ridge that year–we went down to Idylwild, then hitched a ride to Black Mountain Road and walked back up to the PCT.   This year, we really want to try to go through.   We hiked Fuller Ridge in July to familiarize ourselves with the route.

The Report gave us a VITAL heads-up, though, that Paradise Cafe is closed.  We’d planned to send a fairly hefty resupply box there!   Whew!   So now we will have to go straight from Warner Springs all the way to Big Bear.   Heeeeeavy packs!  Oh fun!

So we are trying to stay cool, man, REAL cool, and not worry or freak out about any of this stuff.   And I am still praying to find my master list for my pack…..