Scissor’s Crossing
K and I took our time getting ready this morning and were on the trail by 0720.
By 0820 we had made it to the next water source that was 2.5 miles away. Apparently, a lot of people had camped there that evening. Once K and I had refilled our water and continued down the trail I knew why so many people stayed there. We had finally hit what I was expecting the desert to be. Hot. With a side of no shade.
For a person who spends most of her summers hiding under a tree or umbrella while everyone else tries to get a tan… this is close to unbearable, but I’m managing. On top of the heat, my left hip/leg socket/muscle hurt every time I took a step. So for 10 miles I was forcing myself not to limp.
After what seemed like forever (in reality it was only about 2 miles) of walking on true flat desert terrain, K and I found some familiar faces. When we stayed with Scout and Frodo on Tuesday evening, one of the helpers had mentioned they were going to bring food and drinks to mile 77 of the trail. Originally they said they were going to be there on Sunday but luckily they decided to do it a day earlier. Best thing about it other than talking to other hikers? They had carrots. And hummus. And baby oranges. It was amazing. They also had muscle rollers and that helped a lot with my hip issue from earlier.
Because we got there at around 1230, we stayed for about 2 hours before hitching a ride to Julian. Yup. You read right. I stuck my thumb out on the side of the road and let some rando take me to a town I’ve never been to. It was really fun. When we were hitching to Julian, K exclaimed that a windowless van that drove passed us would get us murdered. Guess which van stopped. We got in the said van and the driver was extremely nice. A recent transplant from Pennsylvania (K’s home state), driving home from a day of dirt-biking.
Once we were in Julian, K and I found the restaurant that gives free pie to thru hikers. K got apple pie ale-mode and since I can’t eat the pie I had some of their apple cider. Twas really good.
On the way back to the trail head, hitching was a little more difficult but we didn’t have to wait anymore than 10 minutes for someone to stop for us. This time, Steve Gannon (he told us to friend him on Facebook), gave us the 12 mile ride back to the trail head all the while pointing out all the cool things about the area. Also, super nice guy.
Back at the trail we filled up our water and started out on a climb that lead to a never ending ridge line walk (we are currently camping on said ridge line and will walk on it some more tomorrow).
Finally the sun started to set and the temperature started to go down a little and we made it to our campsite for the night. At this point my feet were screaming at me. Even with four hours of “relaxing” we managed to cover 18.5 ish miles. Yay!
Tonight might be my first good night of sleep on the trail. Fingers crossed.