Our morning was relatively uneventful and the first 7 or so miles passed quickly. We took a break at a ranger station where we could fill up on water. We chatted with the other hikers there and also enjoyed a couple of sodas each as they had a cooler of them for $1 each. We are developing a soda addiction on this trail! Also the coozies from Tom are coming in quite handy.
Our break lasted much longer than usual and we set out around 1030 or so into the now very hot morning. There was a group of four guys and a girl ahead of us. We had 8 miles downhill until the Acton KOA where we planned to take a long break. Wolf Bird and I had made up a song about the KOA and all the amenities we heard it offered. We had a great time singing it while walking and making up new verses. It goes “Whatchu know about the KOA?!” And the other person replies with an amenity they have, like “I heard they got free wifi” or “water spigots!” We were making ourselves laugh so hard singing it. Our only regret is not recording a music video for it.
After a while, Wolf Bird went ahead on this downhill section and sped past everyone. I put on some music which really got me in the zone and found myself also passing everyone. It was super hot and without a breeze at times so I was glad most of the section was downhill.
Eventually we caught a glimpse of where we were heading down in the valley. There were some cool rock formations around and trains kept passing by down in the valley below. We also spotted a van that looked like Coppertone’s van, who is the previous PCT thru hiker who gave us Trail magic. Once we descended we discovered it was indeed Coppertone.
We took a break in the shade by his van and enjoyed fruit and doughnuts and a root beer float as we chatted with the other hikers that came in (Dirt, Gumby, Borat, etc). Then we decided to walk over to the infamous KOA just down the road to check out all the amenities we’d been singing about.
There were a lot of people grilling and tons of kids running around as it was Memorial Day. We found out that earlier in the weekend this big field had been so filled with tents you could barely walk through it! It was much emptier but still busy when we went thru. We weren’t planning on camping here since we would be in town tomorrow with laundry and showers (the KOA offered these amenities of course) but we did eat many snacks of course. We watched a dad and son play catch with a boomerang which unsurprisingly turned out to be extremely dangerous and almost result in some decapitations. Other highlights included meeting some new hikers Pac Man and Kate who gave us beer and chatted with us, me accidentally drinking water that tasted like it came from a toilet, and of course eating even more.
We set out around 530 to hike a few more miles to get us closer to the town for tomorrow morning. I was glad to leave the KOA, as it was a really strange place (even with all those amenities). It was just pretty dirty and crowded overall. We enjoyed our evening walk as the sun sank lower and lower in the sky (and we’re glad for slowly cooling temps) and treated ourselves by listening to music while we walked. We were feeling good and walked about 7 miles to just before a tunnel that goes under the highway. We could hear the buzz of cars driving by but it was nice white noise to lull us to sleep.
You are too funny! I don’t think eating too much should be of any concern to you. You must be burning soooo many calories every day. Really pretty pictures of the sunset.. Love you! ?