Miles Hiked: 21.9
Total Milage: 42.1
Luke and I walked out of camp in the morning twilight. It was a pleasantly cool morning. I kept my puffy on for the entire first five miles without getting hot. We walked down a sandy trail with a nice constant breeze that reminded me of being next to the ocean. At mile five we took a long break at Boulder Oaks Campground. As I stretched on my black foam sleeping pad for thirty minutes Sam hiked in to join us. I met Sam at Scout and Frodo’s house before I got dropped off at the trail. If I had to guess he is about fifty years old despite looking really young. I know this because he hiked the PCT for the first time in 1992. He is an artist professionally: specifically a sculptor. Sam is the only person I’ve met who seems to be hiking about the same pace as me. He hiked with Luke and I for the rest of the day.
After our first long morning break, we hiked three more miles to Kitchen Creek Falls where we went a steep 0.3 miles off the trail to go see the water feature. It wasn’t big and gushing like I was expecting but it was definitely a nice spot to take a break! Today wasn’t as scenic as yesterday but it was still very pretty. Anytime I saw a very nice shady spot under a tree I took a break because I didn’t know when the next time we would see a nice shady spot would be. Today was more exposed to the sun and I was thankful for our early morning start. I applied sunscreen pretty frequently.
Luke and I needed to get to mount Laguna by 4pm so we could get some extra groceries for resupply and eat dinner at the restaurant next to our hostel before everything closes at 5pm. Because of this we didn’t take as many long breaks as I would have preferred. My feet honestly hurt pretty bad by the time we walked into town. I look forward to taking more breaks tomorrow. As soon as we dropped our bags at the hostel we ran down to the general store and back to the restaurant for dinner. I had a large salad with a french baguette and butter. I was thankful to lie down after dinner I felt pretty exhausted but glad to be in town early. I didn’t really talk to any of the other hikers I saw and only one other person is staying at the hostel. Sam ended up camping a few miles before town. He plans a rest day in Mt. Laguna tomorrow but I’m sure I’ll see him again. I’m not super concerned about making friends the first week on trail. It makes me nervous when people are insecure about hiking alone and making friends on week one, especially when you don’t know other hikers paces yet. I am looking forward to spending more time alone on this trail than I did on the CDT but hopefully I make some friends by mile 400! It’s nice that Luke joined me right at the beginning so I can have some company but also lots of space to make friends in a week or so.
Des Hikes Thru 