Captain's Log: Day 31

May 13, 2016

We didn't have the schedule for the bus into town so we were up early in hopes of getting to Walker Pass as early as possible and finding service to check the schedule. The bus doesn't stop at the pass unless you call to arrange the stop beforehand and we had no idea what to expect in terms of getting the 30 mile hitch into Ridgecrest.

The climb the night before had led us to believe that we were finally headed out of the desert but that appeared not to be the case as we headed back into another desert section. Around 11:00am we made it down to the pass to learn that the next bus wasn't for another 2.5 hours. Fortunately we were able to get rides into town after only 1.5 hours.

The first stop was the post office where I picked up a birthday care package and new shoes! While sitting outside the post office a young woman asked us if we were hitchhiking and if we were interested in coming over to her house for lunch. We were completely caught by surprise but turned down the lunch offer because Loopy, Rickets, and Chris were already eating at Arby's. The woman, Amber, immediately followed up with an offer for dinner which we were more than happy to accept. After swapping contact info we parted ways so she could finish her shopping and we could get the group back together and take care of our resupply before walking over to Amber's house.

It turned out that Amber and her husband Joshua had met while hitch hiking, gotten married, and settled down in Ridgecrest. They cooked us some pretty amazing burgers for dinner and offered a ride back to the trail in the morning. We were all able to get laundry and showers done as well which was amazing after all the sweat in the last desert section.

They have an awesome baby daughter who slowly warmed up to us over the course of the night. There aren't too many kids on the PCT and even fewer babies and I think we had all forgotten a little bit how amazing it is to be around them.

I got to catch up with my friend from the Appalachian Trail, Guy on a Buffalo, for a bit before dinner which was awesome! He had just finished his Triple Crown (Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, and Appalachian Trail) in October and had been down in San Diego helping out the trail angels Scout and Frodo. It turns out that there are a number of people from the AT in 2014 who are on the PCT this year who I'm now hoping to run into.