We “slept in” today and got up at about 6AM as we only had a four mile walk to the road that leads to town. We packed up and saw a bunch of people walk by our campsite who must have gotten a much earlier start. We ended up passing many of them as we did an extra fast walk to get to the road quickly. We were a bit worried about getting a hitch with so many people (maybe about 10) around us also trying to get a ride. As we walked we watched a wall of clouds rising behind the mountains. This was the impending storm moving in on us. It was still sunny where we were but it was crazy to actually see the clouds moving in on us.
We made it to Scissors Crossing, where we would hitch into Julian from. There were three guys at the road already who had been looking for a hitch for about 10-15 minutes. We decided to walk about 0.1 miles up the road to an intersection to give the guys some space and in hopes of an intersection being a better/easier spot to get a ride. Wolf Bird decided to time how long it took us to get a ride and it must have been less than a minute from when he started his watch that a car pulled over to pick us up!
We got into town around 9am and immediately went to Granny’s Kitchen where we devoured breakfast burritos. I also bought a new phone charging cord which I desperately needed as my phone was at 10% battery life.
Julian is a tiny town that is pretty touristy for such a small area. Its storefronts all are built like a Wild West town and it seems the area is known for its apples. There were a ton of hikers already in town and many coming to town today with the storm coming. We looked up the weather and it sounded pretty miserable. There was a high wind advisory and the threat of rain, snow, and hail with cool temps in the 40s for today and tomorrow. We originally planned just to stop into town and head back to the trail today, but the weather led us to decide to stay the night.
It was sort of a madhouse with all the hikers and tourists competing for lodging and it being a Saturday evening didn’t make it any easier. There is a trail angel, Carmen, in town who hosts hikers for free and lets them sleep on the floor of her restauarant. We considered this, but heard people were packed like sardines in there the previous night… And we were craving some luxury (aka real bed and shower and laundry) so we splurged for a room in a bed and breakfast for the night.
We spent the day eating a lot–burgers and FREE pie/ice cream. Our bed and breakfast also had a tea time (so fancy!) at 5PM. We were the least classy people at tea time by far. We enjoyed our warm showers and washing off all the dirt of the desert and were so grateful that we could do laundry where we were staying.
The weather got pretty gross out. Rainy and windy and cloudy and cold. We were glad to not be out in this weather.
We woke up to snow on Sunday morning. In looking up the weather for the day, we decided to take a zero and stay in town another day. It was supposed to rain and be cold all day and night again. We didn’t really want to take a zero so early, but to be out in such cold temps in rain all day long sounded pretty miserable. It seems pretty much all the other hikers in town made the same decision.
It is a bit overwhelming just how many hikers are here in this tiny town. I’m not used to hiking around so many people–going south on the AT is not nearly as social. It is cool to meet so many people but it feels almost cliquish to me in a way and I find myself comparing what we are doing to what everyone else is doing.
We plan to head out tomorrow morning. It will be interesting to see what that is like, as everyone else (I’d estimate maybe 30 or 40 people, or more) are planning to do the same. It’s definitely the people that make the trail experience what it is, but to have SO many people in the same section of trail is pretty crazy.
We are at mile 77 now and should pass the 100 mile mark in the next couple days! Will update next time we are in town!