Day 7 - Day 9

Our town stop in Julian was very successful overall.

Once we got everything together and to the edge of town, it wasn't a very long time until we caught a hitch out of town. Our hitch this time was a guy named Dave and he was driving a big white hearse listening to some Ozzy. Definitely one of the most interesting hitches we've ever gotten. He was a really nice guy and insisted we take his phone number in case we ran into any problems in the desert. 

Although we spent most of the hot part of the day in town, it was still blazing when Dave dropped us off back in the desert. We also had about a 1500 foot climb back up into the San Felipe hills. We paused for a moment under a bridge in a shady spot to gather ourselves and met some hikers, Day Dreamer and the crew known as the Bromigoes. We hiked briefly with Day Dreamer who enlightened us to the names of a bunch of the cacti we've been seeing. In the next little section we saw barrel cacti, agave plants, cholla cacti and a few others. 

Pretty pink cacti

Look at all the barrel cacti.

We had heard there was supposed to be a high wind advisory for the upcoming section of the trail, gusts of up to 60 mph. Because of this, we planned on night hiking the next 13 miles to clear the section before the wind hit. It was a very long night but with some coffee and good conversation, we made it to the water cache at the 3rd gate (literally a section with 9 gates you have to walk through) by 11:30 and scoped a spot to camp in the bushes.

Very impressively maintained water cache at the 3rd gate.

After a very short and cold nights sleep, we woke in the morning to nearby hikers laughing and singing, very annoying at 6am considering we didn't actually get to bed until about 12:30am. Sparrow eventually got up and went down to the water cache and lo and behold, he found Bill there helping to restock the cache! Bill was the guy who dropped us off at the monument on Day 1. It was really awesome to catch him and we briefly caught up with him and took a few pics before we set off for the day. The next few hours we spent traversing the ridge line in the direct sun which was pretty brutal, but we were rewarded with excellent views back to the desert we crossed and a few snakes on the trail (none of which were rattlers).

The next notable event was hitting the 100 mile mark! 

You can see "100" layed out in stones on the trail. 

Shortly after this we reached the next water source where we planned on filling up. Upon arriving there however, we were informed that about an hour earlier people had been trying to figure out why the piped water wasn't running and someone eventually pulled out a couple dead rats which had been clogging the flow. Needless to say, we weren't very excited about drinking the water and instead decided to stretch the few liters we had between us, wait out the rest of the heat of the day, and hike 4 miles to the next water source to fill up. We chilled for a while and just as we were packing up to go, a former thru hiker named Veggie showed up with water, beer, and the fixings for chocolate chip pancakes!! This was such a life saver. We hung out for an hour or two and socialized and ate and it was fantastic. Veggie actually hiked the AT the same year as us and we remember seeing her name in the trail registers. Sometimes it's such a small world. 

Feeling full of good food we took off and hiked a few miles through arid cow pastures and dry grasslands into the night to get closer to Warner Springs where we had a resupply box waiting for us.

Entering the cow area.

More cows.

We got a little turned around in the dark at one point and ended up hiking about .3 miles off trail following a little stream (the first stream on trail we've seen!) through a little gulley area with trees. 

Realizing our mistake, and feeling pretty tired, we called it a day and camped right there off trail.

In the morning we packed up and hiked through more desert grasslands.

About a mile down the trail was an awesome place called Eagle Rock.

Me with the eagle.

We hung out here and ate a breakfast of trail mix while talking to a former thruhiker named Gnarly. He's from Portland and offered to host us when we get up north to Oregon. While we chatted with him a group of about 30 cowboys on horses showed up (is this real life?) to take in the scene and asked us to take their group picture in front of the rock.

I have never seen this many people on horseback in my life. It was quite surreal. The cowboys were very interested in our hike and asked us lots of questions. They wished us good luck and gave us some oranges and cold beers before riding off. 

Later cowboys!

Currently we are about 3 more miles down the trail at the Warner Springs Community Center.

We've taken bird baths, hand washed our socks and underwear, eaten a cheeseburger, and gotten our re-supply boxes (thanks Thom and Mel!). There was actually so much food here leftover in the hiker boxes from people's re-supplies that we were able to make up another box and mail it ahead to ourselves later when we might need it.

A very successful stop.

We're about ready to pack up and hit the trail again as I type. A lot of hikers are staying as this place is kind of a hiker trap. In the interest of not spending tons of money, we will be moving on a couple more miles before we call it a day.

It's been another wonderful day on the trail and I am thinking very often of my father who had surgery on his lung this morning. I talked to him on the phone yesterday and am hoping that his operation went okay. 

Until later!