It was tough getting out of bed at 5AM this morning with the cold and wind there to greet us. We finally mustered the courage and were up and walking by about 6AM. We had a beautiful walk along Fuller Ridge first thing this morning and it did not disappoint. We had beautiful views into the valley below as the sun rose. It was a truly stunning landscape and helped make the cold windy morning bearable.
Our walk today would be about 20 miles of relentless downhill. The PCT is crazy about switchbacks, so our climb down the mountain felt extremely drawn out. We had pretty fantastic views all day. The houses and roads in the valley below looked so far down underneath us. It was hard to imagine we’d end up there by day’s end.
It was warm but not too hot today, mostly because of the intense wind all day. There were some intense gusts, I imagine up to 45 miles per hour, possibly more. At times the wind nearly blew me over–its force was so strong I could lean into it.
We broke up our day with breaks every 2ish hours or every 6 or so miles, which was nice. We passed mile 200 today!!! And had a photoshoot where it took quite a while to fit both of us and the “200” in the frame.
About two thirds of the way down the mountain we passed a dad and son hiking the opposite direction, who were on a three week trip. They told us they’d stayed with a Trail Angel named Hillbilly the previous evening and told us he would host us for free or even just give us rides to In N Out Burger if we wanted. Well, after hearing that we were fantasizing about burgers for the next couple hours. We were on the fence about if it’d be a good idea to try to get a ride to In N Out because that meant we’d have a bigger than intended day at about 22ish miles. This wasn’t a huge day but we have been trying to take it easy due to our previous injuries. We decided to stop at our next water source and decide.
We arrived at the water source, which was actually a water fountain in the middle of the desert, around 1PM. We took a lunch break and ate sitting in the intense sun, as the wind made it too cold to sit in the shade. During our hour break, many other hikers caught up to us and also took a break. There was a group of two guys walking from together and then a group of about five guys and girls walking together. We briefly chatted with them before deciding that we felt good and wanted to head to In N Out! No big surprise there–we like our food.
I called Hillbilly and he said he could give us a ride no problem, just give him a call when we got to the road 4.8 miles from where we had lunch. He also said we were welcome to stay with him–he’d be cooking spaghetti and sausage for dinner. I told him we’d talk it over and give him a call when we got to the road.
The walk to the road was a nice change in that it was flat as opposed to the 18 miles of downhill we’d just walked. However, part of the walk to the road was on pavement which was hard on my shin splints. Then after the pavement ended the trail changed to loose sand–it was like walking on a beach for miles! It really gave our calves a workout. To top it all off, the wind was more intense than itd been all day! We later found out that there had been a wind advisory for gusts over 50mph! I was growing extremely frustrated by the time we neared the road, as most of the 4.8 miles had been walking directly into the wind which was a lot of work, especially in loose sand.
We finally reached the road and went under the underpass below the highway. There were some coolers with water bottles and even beer! But we had very little time to check them out because we saw an SUV at the far end of the underpass with a bunch of hikers piling in. We booked it over there to see if we might be able to finagle a ride to In N Out rather than make Hillbilly come get us.
We met Mama Bear, as she calls herself, who had checked the underpass for hikers to see if anyone needed a ride. Four hikers that we hadn’t met before were piling in the car and she was going to drive them to Hillbilly’s to stay. She asked if we wanted to join. We had planned to just get a burger then come back to the trail and find a camp spot after. We had to discuss it but finally decided that we would just stay with Hillbilly after all, but not without asking Mama Bear if we could stop at In N Out first. She very kindly said yes and we hopped in the car all squeezed in and sitting in each others’ laps. The reason we had to discuss whether to stay at Hillbilly’s was that often it is the case that you get a late start the next day, as you are relying on the trail angel to get you back to the trail and typically that doesn’t happen super early. It was supposed to be really hot the next day so we were concerned we wouldn’t be able to start hiking in time to beat the heat. We ultimately decided to suck it up for the chance to have our burgers!
Mama Bear drove us to In N Out and we ordered our food to go (2 burgers and fries and Dr Pepper for wolf bird and a burger fries and a chocolate milkshake for me). We met the other hikers, Flame, Beav (as in Beaver), Gourmet, and Sonia. Flame and Beav had each hiked the AT before. Beav hiked Southbound like us! He hiked in 2012 but started on the same date (July 1) that we did in 2013!
We got our food to go and were off to Hillbilly’s! Mama Bear started describing Hillbilly to us and said things like “he doesn’t have a lot of teeth” and “he’s different…but harmless” and then finally said “I guess what I’m trying to say is he drinks a lot”. Well this would be interesting.
We got to Hillbilly’s and discovered six other hikers already there, so that made 11 of us with us five joining. Hillbilly was quite a character right off the bat. He is in his 60s with white hair and off color jokes. Wolf bird and I were sitting eating our burgers when Hillbilly came up behind wolf bird and tickled his ribs and yelled “gotcha! I knew you were ticklish” and then told me he’d get me too later. His house was full of knickknacks with a lot of tiger things–rugs and paintings and statues.., even a panther table! Hillbilly had clearly been drinking all day and offered everyone beers and shots. We did not partake. All this being said, he was incredibly generous. He allowed us all to take showers and do laundry and then made us all dinner as well. It felt so nice to shower even though I almost felt guilty showering the day after I was in town!
We met and chatted with some of the other hikers but were already getting tired by 7ish! We usually go to bed by 8! The atmosphere was pretty loud and chaotic and social. Wolf bird and I hadn’t noticed that many of the others had already claimed floor space to sleep on so we got stuck with space right in front of the loud tv in the living room while everyone else were more tucked away.
A group of hikers called Hillbilly asking for a ride so a whole new group of four hikers arrived around 830 or so. We had turned down the lights but couldn’t figure out how to turn off the volume on the tv so we were just laying on our pads frustrated. Then when this new group of hikers came in, they were very loud and moving all over the place and turning on lights etc. I was really frustrated as I am a light sleeper and knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep until everyone was quiet and it was dark. Wolf bird was frustrated too but not nearly as much as I was. Finally everyone calmed down and the lights were out, but then hillbilly turned on the tv in his bedroom. His bedroom was right beside the living room and he left his door open so the Noise from his tv was pretty loud where we were laying–I could hear even through earplugs. Wolf bird luckily fell asleep but I didn’t fall asleep until hillbilly turned off his tv at midnight. I was very grateful for a place to sleep and food and shower and laundry… But it did come at a price. Sometimes sleeping out in the woods is just easier and more simple! Nonetheless it was a strange yet memorable experience… And we did get our In N Out after all so all was good in the world.