I got up twice in the night to perform…perimeter checks. The second time, there were still stars visible in the sky, but the clouds were definitely rolling in. Sure enough, the winds really picked up and it started pouring right around 6—the usual time we roll over and say “oh hell no, we’re not getting up yet.”
Unlike us, the other 3 more dedicated thru-hikers did get up and start packing in the rain. I heard a lot of laughing or crying, it’s hard to tell from deep inside a warm sleeping bag. Unfortunately, I did have to get up for reasons of urgency, so I got a chance to see how miserable it really was outside. Superman’s tent was a wet piece of nylon. Alley was still inside hers packing things up. Only Daniel seemed to be making real progress on getting ready. Bunny had followed me out for her own water emergency and she made the declaration “we aren’t hiking in this!”
Who am I, a humble man without a job or home, to argue with his wife. We went back inside into our warm bags to wait the rain out. It’s supposed to be over by early morning…tomorrow. This gave me time to do some ciphering. At our current rate of progress with an occasional weather induced zero, such as today, we should be done with the PCT by late April/early May…2020. No rush.
Once the three first time thru-hikers, who still find joy in whatever nature throws their way, finished packing up in the outhouse across the park and headed up the trail, I started the morning coffee. Somewhat anticipating my wife’s attitude about today, I had stocked up on plenty of water to get us through the rain without being required to venture out, much. There’s still the privy across the way beckoning with her covered roof, dry walls, and unlocked door.
We aren’t as remote as we thought we were going to be on the PCT. Around 11, we heard a car pull up followed by a “woo, woo.” Bunny immediately stiffened up since is the known MO of serial killers about to strike in the backwoods. A nice young man came up to the tent and introduced himself as a section hiker that decided to get off today and he was just driving back to check on where he thought other hikers might be. His trail name is Spoon and he works at the outfitter in Idyllwild. He offered us a ride or food, whatever we needed. We said we were good and thanked him for his offer.
After Spoon left, another car pulled up, but this one was not the benevolent hiker coming to check on us. It was a couple of teens who had their weekend ruined by the rain and wanted to do some damage to their dad’s car and the parking lot. They did donuts in the lot for a solid 15 minutes. I kept hoping to hear the front end slam into a post. Between Bunny and I peering out through the tent doors, we managed to pull the tent down.
The donut kids had left by the time I got out of the tent to reset it only to be replaced by another 4 wheeler. Since I was up, I fell prey to the siren call emanating from the privy across the way. I met the guy in the 4 wheeler who had succumbed to the same call of the sirens. I was too late. He had already been turned into a toad.
The rest of the afternoon saw a parade of evangelists coming through and knocking on our tent. First up was Jehovah’s Witness’ who offered to leave us with about 10# of literature which I was only able to decline through my persistence that weight was a huge factor for us and they would each loose their slots in heaven if God found out they had burdened a thru-hiker (yes, it’s true, thru-hikers are favorites in multiple hierarchies). I did agree to take a flyer as a compromise which turned out to be very handy when the Mormons showed up. “Too late! Jehovah’s have already gotten our souls…unless you can teach me how to play a mean guitar, there’s nothing left for you here.” They replied “that’s really more of a Methodist thing” and went away dejected.
A trail angel, Fruitbowl, dropped by the place later in the afternoon. She was impressed that we threw caution to the wind and set up in the middle of the trail. She gave us a tall boy “Weekend Vibes” IPA to help us sleep the afternoon off. She’s from Alpine and does trail magic all the way up to Mike’s Place so we’ll, hopefully, get to see her again in better conditions.
One benefit of laying up today was that we were able to reduce our pack weight by one less day of food. On the down side, our gear soaked up more water weight that we lost in food weight. We’ve still got 2 days to Julian and only 4 days of food left.
EFG