Agua Dulce, sweetest of water

455 miles into this trail, I notice things about myself.  I spend part of each day being very ambitious and making unbelievable plans to hike very big miles, part of each day in despair, miserable and certain I will get off the trail at the next opportunity, and the majority of each day simply happy, looking at scenery and trying not to trip as I do so.  These moods seem to be roughly determined by a. my blood sugar level and b. the weather at the moment.  Sun midday = despair.  Clouds and a nice hike into camp = ambition.

I've been hiking through a burned area the last 2 days, completely wiped in the 2009 Station Fire that started in Pasadena.  Even talked to firefighters who fought it.  A South African potter hiking the trail pointed out to me that there is a strange, stark beauty to the landscape that is so devastated, in the black outlines of trees almost as if it is winter and summer at once.  I am trying to appreciate the more desolate and barren areas, inspired by her.

Right now I am staying at "Hiker Heaven," an oasis for hikers in Agua Dulce maintained by a generous and PCT-loving family named the Saufleys.  They have tents set up for us to sleep, runs to the REI 30 miles away, a kitchen, showers, laundry, mail service (no PO in town) and all this in their backyard (very big, with horses, cats and dogs).  There is another house 24 miles up the road, the Andersons, that also invites hikers to stay and take a load off.  I am really impressed with the commitment of the PCT community to supporting hikers. On a trail with no shelters, these little havens are really appreciated.  And I understand why the Saufleys live here - the Vasquez Rocks, right in town, are gorgeous.

Just as I am starting to think of life on the trail as "normal," I am at T-minus 11 days of hiking left.  Stats:  4 blisters, 6 pieces of gear replaced or bought, 1 sunburn (light), 6 pounds lost, 3 nights of rain, 5 rattlesnake sightings, 0 bears, and many, many trail angels.  These last come in all forms, from the very established to the very random.  My two favorites came on my way out of Wrightwood, CA (a gorgeous mountain community that was having a communal yard sale AND a farmer's market as I walked through) - Nancy, a mother of two who gave me a ride all the way back to the trail even though she wasn't driving that way, and Joe Maloney from Brooklyn, a grandpa who offered me his extra water as I walked by him.

Pictures of the Vasques Rocks area