Captain's Log: Day 21

The morning was fairly uneventful as each of us was just focused on finishing up the dry section. We all met up around 9:00am at a ranger station that not only had water but also sodas and candy for sale. We took a decent break there and talked to the Ranger, Tod, about his 18 years as a ranger there and the changing PCT.

The rest of the morning was mostly the same until we arrived at the KOA for water and lunch. We stopped for an hour on the shade and each picked up an ice cream bar from the store.

We hit the trail again at 1:00pm as the heat intensified. Rickets and I were the last to leave and as we came around one of the first bends we found Loopy setting up to wait out the heat. Eeyore had already told her he was planning on powering through the last 10 miles but Rickets and I were not as excited about hiking in the heat.

We laid next to the railroad tracks until 3:00pm before setting out again. By that time the heat had died down somewhat and we had a nice breeze. The first 7 miles went by quickly until we hit the I-14 crossing.

The remaining miles were through the Vasquez Rocks County Park, famous as the set of a wide spread of movies over the last 100 years. The scenery was amazing and included some incredible rocks. We took it slow to take it all in. And because it was the end of a pretty long day.

The three of us got into town at 6:30pm and headed right for the Mexican restaurant. We sat outside as a courtesy to other guests and the service was exceedingly slow because of that.

We finally paid up a little after 8:00pm and headed right to the grocery store. Shopping was fairly quick although stressful as the next section is the longest without a resupply we've hit yet. Having run out of food once it was not something we were eager to do again.

We got a ride up to Hiker Heaven, a well known oasis run by the Saufleys. I don't think any of us were expecting the number of hikers or the completely full service being run there. The backyard was open for camping, they would take care of the laundry, there was a trailer that had a kitchen, living room, and shower, and they run rides to various services. It was a little bit of a bummer to get in after dark, but avoiding the heat was worth it. We took care of showers and a foot soak before cowboy camping.