June 14

Woke up around 6:30 as the sun was already quickly heating things up. It was already 92 degrees by 9am making for a pretty hot morning of hiking.

Continued hearing the weird animal noises from the night before, even from well up in the hills across the freeway/valley.. just weird..

Passed through a series of pretty/interesting rock formations called Vasquez Rocks but ended up losing the trail just as we were beginning to see the town, cruel to be that close and searching around in the ever growing heat of the day. We never did find the trail (think I remember where we might've missed the turn, but it was a ways back and further than I think either of us wanted to backtrack) and it was obvious we weren't the only ones who had done so as there were minor trails with footprints leading in all sorts of directions. End the end we opted to climb pretty much straight out of it and in the direction of the town. At one point we thought we'd even managed to rejoin the actual trail given how well traveled what we were on seemed to be but it still wasn't right. But we eventually managed to get to the road we were supposed to come in and through town on. Both of us thought back to the AT and how many towns it goes through whereas Agua Dulce is one of the only towns actually on the PCT. Both of us were thankful for the short day into town, both even running out of water as we reached town. First place we hit was the local grocery for some cold drinks :) Then hitting up the pizza place next door for some sandwiches.

A little more than a mile up the road and we were finally at the Saufley's, the well known trail angels who's home is known as the Hiker Haven.

The setup was pretty amazing - organized and just about anything a hiker would need to rest up and take care of things. The open garage featured shelving holding everyone's maildrops, a computer for people to use, supplies and scale to prepare and apply postage for packages, and a kiosk of bulletin boards full of all sorts of trail and transportation related information. Next to the garage was an open canopy with bins of clean *cotton* loaner hiker clothes of all sizes (and styles - always amusing to see what hikers choose to sport around town for fun. I immediately nabbed the bright yellow Brazil #10 jersey even if it was a size too big and not featuring the favored Pele's name - I soon began to be known as Rivaldo :) to wear while you did laundry and throughout your stay if you chose (so nice to wear cotton for a change), a shelf full of bath towels and washcloths, and mesh laundry bags and a set of instructions for what to do in preperation to have your clothes laundered for you. They even had smaller mesh bags for gaiters so that their hooks and velcro wouldn't snag and damage other clothing. There were three large canopies with bug netting (apparently they'd had more and one bigger one that they'd just taken down as the crowd had begun to thin out), each housing three cots to sleep on. There were three portapotties behind a stable with a couple of horses (seemed like just about every home in that town had horses :). Also next to the stable was a few bike racks which hosted a fleet of loaner bikes (many with baskets) for people to use to get to/from town. There was a trailer home with a couple of bedrooms, a bathroom with a shower/tub with just about anything you'd need to take care of your hygienic needs, a kitchen, a desk with another computer, and a living area with comfy couches, a TV and loads of movies. There was a row of hiker boxes outside organized by type of item; food, toiletries/medical, gear, clothing, etc. (btw, hiker boxes are just a place for hikers to leave anything they no longer need for other hikers to possibly use. They often contain surplus food or items people realize they no longer want to carry.) On the side of the trailer there was a bulletin board with chores that people could volunteer to do to help keep the place clean and in working order. A fire pit, lots of chairs, lawn, outdoor shower, etc, etc... Like I said, quite the set up :)

Was immediately surprised to see as many hikers as I did which was nice and something of a relief. Was glad that I'd missed the real crowd though :) One of the first I met was a girl with a temporary cast/boot who was dealing probable fractures in her foot :( Sounded like it was really just from hiking along too. Felt horrible for her as you could just sense the depth of disappointment and frustration of being forced off the trail and dealing with having her friends leave her behind in addition to seeing/meeting all these hikers coming and then leaving over and over...

After showering up, picking out a cot, exploding the pack, and getting my laundry bag together, I rode into town to call home and grab dinner. Ended up scoring some free pizza as I sat outside talking on the phone - a group of three section hikers and a thru-hiker weren't going to be able to finish what they ordered and needed a little help :) The section hikers didn't want to face the ridicule of bringing food back with them, unable to finish their meal :) In thanks I picked up a pack of Klondike ice cream bars for everyone :)

While riding home I heard a bunch of cayotes singing really loudly closeby. Sounded like there were tons of them! :)


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Location:Agua Dulce