We were up at 6 am today, and ate  the last of our leftover trail breakfasts while enjoying the jolly company of other hikers and some of the Hiker Heaven volunteers.  One of those volunteers is a retired school band director–  which reminds me, I haven’t mentioned that one of the fun features of Hiker Heaven is the musicians. There’s a piano, a “hiker guitar” (which gets LOTS of use!) and now a trombone, because yes indeed, the band director serenaded us on his trombone that he brought along.  Since I played trombone myself in high school and college, that was totally cool!

It’s much cooler today— yesterday we were all looking for shade, but today we looked for sun.  We had fun hanging out with Transient and JJ.  Transient was telling stories of his adventures in Europe while in the army, and JJ told us about his “wild” youth.  He said that later on when he got older, a lot of things in his life went all wrong, and he ended up for awhile as a 400 lb. alcoholic who had just about given up on life.  But finally he came to his senses and said, “What have I done?”  The first thing he did was try to exercise.  “I could only walk a half block at first,”  JJ laughed.  “One time I really outdid myself and walked THREE blocks–then I had to call a cab to take me home!”  But he persevered, and the weight began to come off.  Now he’s an avid hiker of reasonable weight, and has even climbed Mt. Whitney!    Way to go, JJ!

The other thru-hikers are all talking “Sierras”. Many bought “serious snow equipment” at REI yesterday–ice axes, crampons, goggles, etc.–and are determined to “go for it”, despite the fact that yesterday they  plowed four feet of NEW snow off the road over Tioga Pass.  Georgi Heitman in Old Station sent word to Hiker Heaven, “Don’t even THINK about coming up here right now.  There’s way too much snow!”   Bill and I do plan to go straight through, but we will take our time about getting to Kennedy Meadows so that hopefully the snow will have melted down more. 

 Some folks are planning to do “moonlight hiking” tonight, since it’s easy trail and a close-to-full moon. Bill and I are resting (me, writing!) and tomorrow morning we will head out for a 9:00 am church service (it’s about an hour’s walk from here and right along the PCT route). After church, we’ll just keep going!

Walk to Rivendell: In Rivendell!

We got up early today, and along with Charlie, we made a breakfast feast for all the hikers– 2 kinds of pancakes, plus bacon, sausage and ham, with plenty of strawberries, bananas, butter and syrup and lingonberry jam to put on them.  All the hungry hikers were well-fed by the time we got done!

Then I found the official “hiker sewing basket” and basically spent the whole rest of the day sewing lots of projects, from fairly extensive repairs on Bill’s pack (and another hiker’s pack) to new construction of items Bill had lost. plus mending other hikers’ clothes.   I would have used Donna Saufley’s sewing machine, but unfortunately it was broken.  So all my sewing was done by hand, which is slow, but on the bright side, a hand-backstitched seam is actually much stronger than a machine-sewed seam.  It was a rather chilly day, though sunny, so I sat in the sun with my sewing, and it wasn’t long before various hopeful-looking hikers were stopping by with their stuff, asking, “Do you think you could fix this?”   That suited me just fine!  I love a sewing challenge. 

 To add to my fun, one of the Saufley dogs decided he wanted to “help” me and insisted on jumping up and lying on my lap.  Sometimes he lay down on top of the sewing.  I would have been tempted to say, “Doggone it, dog!  Go away!”  but he was just too cute to grump at. By the end of the day,  I’d done extensive repairs and replacements on two packs, made a new “medicine bag” for Bill and I (Bill lost the original when he fell on Fuller Ridge), a new headnet and sungloves for Bill (they were literally blown out of his pack sidepockets by the wind in the San Felipes), and lots of clothes-mending.

Meanwhile,  Bill went to REI and got new trek poles to replace the ones he broke on Fuller Ridge.   In 2005, a whole gang of us hikers all piled into “Big Red”, the Saufley’s van, but those days are over.  Somebody crashed “Big Red” and the insurance company said “No more hikers driving!”   So now, a whole crew of volunteers drives hikers to REI.

In the afternoon, the section-hiker couple (the Coxes) we met on Baden-Powell came in, all done with their hike, and  carrying  the makings of banana splits! All the hikers instantly were there from all the tents all over the yard!  Amazing how fast the word of “Food!” travels here!  I sat and ate my banana split with Mrs. Cox, and she told me about their adventures getting to Little Jimmy Campground.  She showed me pictures of it on her camera, and said that after we’d headed for the road and they kept on going, she figured out a new technique for crossing steep snow traverses.  “I hold on to the back of my husband’s pack,” she said.  “That way I’m not so scared.”  She was very cheery and talkative–very different from when we’d met on top of Baden-Powell, where she was rather quiet and a bit grim.  “I was scared,” she told me.  “I guess I wasn’t as friendly as normal.”  “Me, too” I said. 

 Later on, volunteer JJ gave us a ride to town and Bill talked to him some more (they’d had other conversations) about knowing God in a real way, not just as religion, and that the key issue was “who is the boss of my life— me, or God?” Bill got out our little Gideon New Testament and showed JJ the verses Romans 10:9-10 and Revelation 3:20.   JJ  said, “OK, I get this!  I’ve always believed in God, but I’ve been running my own life and calling all the shots.  I need to quit that and let God be the Boss.”  So  he prayed with Bill to let God know what he’d decided. It was awesome!

Then JJ headed back to the Saufleys to help the hikers, and we headed for pizza.  The pizza place had only been open for a week, and it was very good.  We managed to eat almost a whole large pizza!  Then we decided to take a “little walk” to find the church we remembered seeing “somewhere down the road” in 2005.    Well, make that a 45 minute walk–we DID find the church, but then it was 45 minutes walk back PLUS the walk back to the Saufleys, and the sun had gone down before we were back at Hiker Heaven.  We found Donna Saufley and asked if we could stay for one more day so we could go to church  on Sunday, and she said, “Sure!”  We were glad of that, because the new Hiker Heaven rule is, “You may stay here for two neros and a zero, then you have to move on.” 

So we are back in our cots in the big white tent, looking forward to one more nice zero day.  And I’m done with sewing, so I can really make it a zero instead of a work day!  And I am so glad for JJ, too! 

Walk to Rivendell: In Rivendell!

For awhile this morning, we were still in the “burn zone” and following the PCT as it alternated between slipping and sliding across mountainsides (sometimes the trail had just totally fallen away), or pushed through thick weeds. But the early morning light was very pretty, and  finally we were out of the “burn” into just nice, normal trail. When we reached the PCT trailhead parking lot, we discovered a sign that said the PCT was closed, and a barricade to make sure that the message was clear!  Oh well!

 By 8:00am we were at the KOA in Soledad Canyon, where we cleaned up and ate breakfast.  I had been hoping that somebody in the campground would spot us and offer some hot coffee (that has often happened for hikers in the past) but nobody was even stirring.  After enjoying our granola, we headed back to the trail, which promptly entered what I think would best be described as a “jungle.”  It was hard to figure out which way to go.  At one point, when we were hesitating, along came a Czech guy coming BACK from what had looked like it was the PCT, but wasn’t.  Good thing we met him!  We were saved from going that way, too.  Finally we noticed a few pink flags, figured “Maybe that’s the PCT??” and followed them.  Hooray!  We found the official PCT railroad crossing, and from then on, the trail was easy to follow.

The PCT takes off from there and wanders all over (I think the idea is to give us a chance to admire the rock formations?) but we finally reached the ridgetop where we could see Agua Dulce and the freeway.  We cheered, even though we still had quite a way to go before we got there.  The trail headed down a pretty little creek canyon, then turned left and contoured for a long way, paralleling a creek below the highway, as the day grew steadily hotter.  We reached the dark tunnel under the freeway (it was so dark in the middle of it that I could not see, and was feeling my way with my trek poles).  At the far end of the tunnel, resting in the shade, was a very hot, very tired Czech guy.  “I kept thinking it was only another 15 minutes to the Saufley’s” he groaned.  He was not pleased to hear that there were considerably more than 15 minutes of hiking left!

But now we were headed into Vasquez Rocks, which were as awesome as ever. It is so obvious that they were laid down and shaped by massive amounts of water, very quickly. There are lots of caves, too, and what I liked was that there were signs to identify many of the plants.  Little creeks were everywhere, swarming with tadpoles.  I kept slowing down to look at things, which Bill found frustrating–he was on a tear for Agua Dulce! 

We stopped for a hot lunch in the shade of a huge pepper tree, and while we were eating, along came a lady on a gorgeous dapplegrey horse, who asked “Are you headed for the Saufleys? At 4:30 I will give a ride to Walmart for any hiker who wants one.”  That sounded good, and we hurried into town and headed for Hiker Heaven.  Last time, someone spotted us and gave us a ride, but this time we had to walk the whole way.  So we arrived all tired out and hot and very grubby.

We were greeted by “JJ” (one of Donna Saufley’s volunteers) and the SIX dogs.  JJ said that Donna had quit her regular job in order to help her husband Jim in his business, so she has no more free time to help the hikers.  Being a great organizer, though, she recruited a whole gang of volunteers to take her place!  So the Hiker Heaven “system” still works, and soon we were showered, had our clothes in the laundry, and raided the refrigerator for ice cream!

At 4:30, the “horse lady” came as she’d promised, and soon we were on our way to Walmart.  Turned out that the dapple gray horse we’d seen her riding was being trained for “eventing”.  Also in the car with us was her daughter, who was headed for a gymnastics class.  So while the daughter was at her class, we had 1 1/2 hours to “do” Walmart.  I got all the food we needed for ourselves, plus plenty to share with other hikers.  Once we returned to Hiker Heaven, we ate up all the leftovers in our packs, plus a large salad.  A steady stream of hikers were coming in.  Turned out that everybody had reached Agua Dulce by a different route!   Some of them cheated, though.  They just said, “Oh phooey on the detour!  I hate roadwalking!” and had hitch-hiked to the Saufleys!

We went to bed early, very tired, while many of the younger hikers sat up late talking around the campfire in the yard.  We are sleeping on folding cots in one of the big white tents.  It’s turned into a chilly night, but oh, is it good to be here!

Walk to Rivendell: On path lined with white stones which began at the Ford, with first views of Rivendell.