Woke up to the most beautiful sunrise. It was going to be a hot day, so I was excited knowing I was going to hang in Julian for the day to beat the heat. I meandered the 7 miles to the road to find Sherbert, Survivor, Rogue, Brendan, and Goblin chilling under the overpass waiting for a hitch. I caught up with them for a bit while we waited for Goblins friend Miata to arrive. She got there and we weren’t all entirely sure how we would fit into her Yaris. But we did it. It was an amazing sight to see because we all managed to fit inside, even with our backpacks and Miatas dog.

The drive into town was down this curvy road, where I thought the clown car of thru hikers were going to fall of on every turn because Miata (so her name says) flew down the road at top speed I stead of the record 20mph. But we arrive alive and then hit up moms in town for some free pie and ice cream! So worth the 70 plus miles it took to get there.

After Moms, I went to the outfitter store and was told what I thought I knew already, that my pack was too small. So I hit up REI and had another pack headed my way a few towns up. But then the trail provided. After I finished my resupply, I walked I to the huge group of hikers in town and they were all like Becca! The lady at the outfitter store had told another guy who was wanting to buy one of their packs, that I was looking for a medium REI Flasb 55 and that’s the pack he was trying to get rid of. Isn’t that insane? So I cancelled my REI order and bought the pack off him so he could get the pack he wanted. Stellar move.

So after that sweet sweet trade, I went to do laundry and shower for the first time in 6 days. Glorious. And then the trail angel came to take me to scissors crossing. While we were chatting, she said my friend was waiting for me under the bridge. I had no idea what she was talking about until it hit me, my friend smack down had caught up to me! It was awesome to see him because he literally started the trail a few days ago after switching from hiking the AT.

We had a killer night under the overpass with some trail angels who provided beer and snacks, and even camped with us for the night.