4/29/17
Day 6Miles: 77 to 91
The road was eerily empty at 5:45 in the morning. I saw it stretching into the distance and I truly felt the remoteness of the small community far from anywhere where we happened to spend the night.
No cars meant no hitch and that meant walking the road for 3.2 miles back to where we left the trail. In everyday life it’s easy to hop in your car and cover that distance in a matter of minutes. Walking, it took us hour an half.
Back on the trail we walked 15 more minutes before arriving to Scissor Crossing and trail magic in a shade under the bridge. In large tubs, gallon containers of water were placed for hikers to use.
It’s mind boggling to think of these kind people who invest their money and time helping PCT hikers, not expecting anything in return. Some of them hiked the trail before and want to pay forward the favors they received. Some are not hikers at all, it simply makes them happy to help us chase our dreams and hear our stories. They all are absolutely amazing.
Today the trail had us contouring a mountain side. We followed it’s shape and creases on a soft sandy path with a constant view down the valley.
The vegetation changed and we enjoyed a large number of cacti, many blooming, and smaller sporadic brush. Later tall grass appeared along the trail and closer to the area called Third Gate Cache thicker vegetation returned.
Third Gate Cache is another area where water is often stocked by trail angels. We found all the containers empty but luckily another half mile further was a cistern where we could resupply for the next waterless stretch.
18 miles total was quite enough for today and even though many hikers chose to hike few more miles, we decided to camp in this area. Kevin, Andrea, Jonathan and his dad, our trail family that started forming in last couple of days opted to stay also and the evening turned out to be hilariously entertaining.
Fingers crossed my foot improves tomorrow. I had to take three doses of vitamin I today to be able to walk the miles. My foot is fine for one step, and then screams in pain when I take the second one. I don’t like the uncertainty. It scares me to think that our hike could be cut short because of the injury. Few days from now we’ll walk to a bigger town called Idyllwild. I hope to find a foot doctor there to figure out what can cause the pain and what can be done about it.