Written Monday, 17 May 2021

Slept pretty well last night. In our loe-lying spot near a water source, it got pretty damp, though, and I had to pack up my quilt wet. It is for times like these that I bought a synthetic quilt rather than down.

Was on the Trail before sun-up, hoping that the overgrowth might have abated, but no such luck.

About 4 miles up the Trail, I reached the North Fork Forest Station, where someone maintains a very nice water cache for hikers, several of whom camped here last night.

It's a beautiful morning as I fill a couple bottles of water and keep moving down the Trail, but you can tell it's going to be a warm one.

Luckily, after the Ranger station, the overgrowth effectively ceases, and I cruise the next 8.5 miles fairly easily into the Acton KOA (Kampground of America), a combination trailer park, recreational vehicle campground, and tenting site that has showers, laundry facilities, and a camp store. This is where I will wait for White Rabbit to catch up to me with my shoe.

Good timing. The day gets really hot, and I'm drinking expensive Gatorade from the camp store like it's going out of style. Finally, at some point, I decide to rent one of the (staggeringly expensive) cabins, just to get out of the heat. I'm able to get a shower, do my laundry, hang my quilt up to dry, and generally relax until about 1700, when White Rabbit shows up with my missing camp shoe!

Oh the joy of old friends reunited!

I mean the shoes, of course.

I could call it a day now, but I've only gone about 12.5 miles, and the little town of Agua Dulce is just about 10 miles ahead. So... I toss the cabin key to White Rabbit and tell him it's his reward for schlepping my shoe 40 miles. I pack up my gear, and by 1730, I'm in the Trail again.

With 29 Mike's to go, I know I'm not going to finish before dark, but I figure I'll use the opportunity to hone my night-hiking skills.

The Trail out of the KOA is definitely a climb, and I'm hustling, but it has cooled off quite a bit from the mid-day heat, and things aren't too bad.

In my haste, I walk right by the monument to the completion of the PCT which took place near here in 1993. I didn't even see it. It must not have been too monumental.

The Trail from the KOA to Agua Dulce is really easy, but as I expected, it's dark before I am finished, causing me to miss (mostly) another landmark, the Vazquez Rocks, a multi-acre sandstone formation that, I'm told, is really quite impressive. You have probably seen them without knowing it since they have been used as settings in quite a few movies and television shows (including a classic, cheesy episode of Star Trek in which Kirk kills a giganti, angry lizard creature by flattening it with a huge boulder).

The Trail eventually goes up over the top of the rocks, which means the footprints I have been following in the dark vanish, and I have to resort to the GPS in my phone to help me navigate through the Vazquez Rocks County Park.

I'm not sure I followed the exact path of the Trail, but I did eventually find my way to a road which carries me into Agua Dulce.

By now, it's about 2130, a time I would normally be asleep under my quilt. I don't see any immediate sign of the park in town where hikers are welcome to camp, but I do see a Mexican restaurant that appears to be open.

Sadly, it is not. The closing crew is winding down the day. I am able to ask about the park, and nobody seems to know anything about it, but the boss says I'm free to camp on the porch, which I do.

I'm safe, dry, and warm vaquero camping on the porch of the Maria Bonita restaurant in Agua Dulce.

Miles Hiked Today: 22.5 ish Total Miles Hiked: 454.4

Sea Otter Fact of the Day:. Sea otters are capable of living their entire lives in the water, but they do come ashore now and then, and they can "walk" like a quadruped (though it's not graceful)