Day 32: Hiker Heaven

Date: Sat 5/19

PCT Start Mile: 444.5

PCT End Mile: 454.5

PCT Mileage for Day: 10

Total PCT Mileage: 454.5

The Highlights: a sleeping snake, Vasquez Rocks, and Hiker Heaven

Remember those trains I mentioned last night? Yeah… several went through last night, and this morning… blaring horns, screeching rails… once it was light out, remarkably silent. Huh… funny how that works.

Silent except for the lion roars. WTF was that? Apparently there is a big cat rescue not far from the KOA with anywhere from 50-75 big cats. We could hear the kings of the jungle roaring this morning. Kinda cool…

Our tent neighbor friends shared their feast leftovers with us for breakfast and then we were off, walking out of he campground around quarter after 7.

Just after crossing the rail tracks that the trains screeched down all night, we passed the PCT completion monument, where the PCT was officially finished in 1993. Neato.

The day started with a climb up into the desert mountains, and eventually leveled out for a bit en route to another climb. The landscape was all short weeds, with little cover. This would be an issue if you were looking for somewhere to discreetly take care of business. That’s all I’ll say about that.

En route to the second climb, we were rounding the bends of the trail that followed along the mountainside when another hiker just a bit ahead of us yelled back, “Just a warning, there’s a small rattlesnake just ahead on the right of the trail.”

Ummm… yikes. “Did it rattle?”, Shawn asked. “No, I think it’s sleeping,” he answered, hiking on. SLEEPING?!? This is new. This might be scarier than an awake rattlesnake. What if it wakes up just as I’m walking past! At least if it was awake and alert, I could just wait for it to slither away. But now I’d have to pass a sleeping giant, at least a small slithery one.

Shawn was ahead of me. I called out… “Where was it?” “Didn’t see it,” he hiked on, unphased. Dammit. I was on high alert … walking slowly, cautiously … ugh, there it is! Hurry hurry hurry down the trail. How did he miss that. I hate snakes. Now I’d think about snakes all day.

After the second climb, in which Poodle Dog Bush began making an appearance again, the trail once again leveled out before heading downhill. Just before it began its decline, I rounded a bend and BOOM, there was Highway 14, as busy as an interstate. Sometimes you feel like you are in the absolute middle of nowhere and then BAM, intense civilization.

The trail wound its way down through the mountains, eventually reaching the tunnel under the highway.

On the other side of the tunnel we entered Vasquez Rocks, which I mentioned yesterday. While we had seen them from a distance yesterday, today we were walking right through the unique rock formations. This area of the trail was also part of several other recreational hiking trails through the area and, because it was a beautiful Saturday, many people were out exploring the area.

Walking through the Vasquez Rocks area, we eventually emerged on Escondido Canyon Road, where the PCT becomes the shoulder of the road, turning onto Agua Dulce Canyon Road and marching right into the center of Agua Dulce, where our hike would end for the day. Another short hike.

In Agua Dulce, our first order of business was a hot lunch.

After lunch, we resupplied at the grocery store next door, Sweetwater Farms, and then waited for the pick-up truck shuttle to Hiker Heaven, which picked up hikers along Agua Dulce Canyon Road every hour and a half just down the road from the grocery store.

A small group started forming for the 3pm pick-up, emerging from various shops with resupply groceries and bellies full with a town meal. We met up with Old Timer, Lux, and Pop Rocks once again, as well as meeting some new hikers, including Penguin Pants (yes, he wears bright blue pajama pants with penguins on them, an oddity in the desert), Pilgrim (who often wears full robes through the desert, making him look like Moses), and Drippy (a name he picked up last year because he was constantly dripping with sweat).

Just after 3pm the noisy diesel pick-up pulled up and we all piled in, off to Hiker Heaven. Hiker Heaven is an awesome little desert oasis, set up on the property of trail angels Donna and Jeff Saufley in Agua Dulce. They are an organized and well-oiled machine, with space for camping, showers, laundry, porta-Johns, charging stations, a mailing station, sewing station, self haircut station, and just about everything you can think of that a hiker might need.

They accept mail drops for free and half of their garage contains packages for hikers, organized by last name. They have tubs and epsom salt for foot baths, large bulletin boards full of area and trail information, a fire pit, and areas to hang out all over their property.

They also have chickens and dogs running all over the place. (We saw chickens running into at least a couple tents… ha). And they have horses.

It turns out we also arrived on a pretty awesome day because some other trail angels were catering a full meal of chicken, beans and rice, salad, bread, and desserts, so within an hour or so of arriving we were eating again. It’s a tough life.

We had originally thought about stopping by Hiker Heaven for only a couple hours and then hiking another 6-8 miles for the day, but once we arrived we were sucked in by the hiker vortex. We decided to call it a day and enjoy this awesome oasis! We took showers for the second day in a row (feeling greedy and unnecessarily clean), ate yummy food, soaked our weary feet, and just generally relaxed and enjoyed the company of fellow hikers.