Tentsite (447.5) - Tentsite (468.2) | Mileage: 20.7 + 0.4 (Detour to food and trail magic)

We told Sweet Pea we’d get up early so alarm off at 5:20 and we’re moving at 5:30 and I am sooo so tired. I get dressed in the chilly air and my shirt is still soggy soggy soggy because it didn’t dry from my sweat last night (this happens every morning and is horrible)

We’re moving not so long after Sweet Pea but we’re going slow and it’s a nice temperature and misty and downhill

The mist is a nice change of pace

Roads are always at the bottom of hills, like always, because road builders are efficient and bulldoze nature and trail builders do circles looking like idiots at all the pretty stuff sometimes I wish they were like road builders like when you see the town right in front of you one mile away MAX and you know you have ten miles to town … WHY IS THE TRAIL SO ROUNDABOUT LITERALLY DOING LAPS ROUND MOUNTAINS WHAT IS THIS TRAINING FOR

Cathole rankings: today definitely not as much a fail as two days ago when I scrambled five feet up a hill practically on the trail and hoped no one would come by nor the day before when it was off the side of a road in a rocky ditch but still could use major improvement because it was practically impossible to dig around the rocks and still decently trail visible. Quality of life would improve significantly if I could be more proactive here

Maddie singing that down down down ring of fire song because we got to top of hill but I was confused at first, didn’t know how that popped into her head

Finally a singalong!!! Yes it was hard to belt out lyrics at 7am while bouncing down a hill, something about the backpack bouncing and pulling you every which way makes it difficult to sing in tune … don’t know how the they do it onstage jumping about like that

Got a Maddie lecture about cleanliness standards OOPS forgot to wash hands before getting into tent last night after touching a PUBLIC faucet and then made breakfast …

Not sure why every time the trail goes near or under a major freeway it becomes so overgrown and sus when the rest of time it’s a smooth perfect ribbon. Makes me feel like I’m trespassing or doing something illegal

Dr. Grant from Jurassic Park seems cool also didn’t camp at KOA maybe we could be friends? Defs heard our singalong though hope it wasn’t too disruptive the tunnel had great acoustics

Ope caught up to Sweet Pea or more like he waited for us for probably a while OOPS

Maddie obsessed with the tadpoles just squatting by the puddle absolutely staring at them apparently she’s never seen them before?

L.A. County Park? Normal people walking around casually? Woah weird to be back in civilization … apparently there were a bunch of movies including some Star Trek stuff filmed here but I guess that makes sense cause Hollywood is so close

Unsurprising that when we accidentally walked on a diff trail that paralleled the PCT for about 0.2 mile when we realized this fact Maddie walked back to the split and did the PCT trail. She is a real purist

Ranger station!!! Got a PCT bag tag finally. Used a real sink to wash our hands finally. Stole some more toilet paper because we’re running low, just like maybe 10 more squares for our TP ziploc

Road walk through Agua Dulce. Sometimes FarOut is super misleading. Thought it would be a ghost town because everyone on FarOut hating on it and saying nothing there. And yeah it was small and not a ton, but it was cute and has an AWESOME BREAKFAST PLACE with really good burritos and a coffee shop next door and a convenience store up the road and because it was the weekend all the L.A. people were there touristing about doing shopping if that gives you the vibe

Anyway we sat for way too long after the morning had already been too leisurely but honestly it was a great change of pace and we hadn’t even planned to stop for breakfast really so all around nice and exciting

Trail magic is awesome but we generally expect it because people ahead usually comment it on FarOut. Real magic is what we just got. And by that I mean some people driving by stopped in the middle of the road and rolled down the window and asked if we wanted their leftover bake sale items so we ran across the road up to their car window and got a haul of homemade cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies.

Up the road checked out Serenity’s Oasis. Trail Angel run place that was like a large dirt area behind a house but had laundry and showers and potable water and you could tent there. Just ditched some trash and got some water, brief stop.

Maddie called Cormac and I listened but didn’t talk much because all of the sudden there was no shade and it was hot hot hot and uphill forever and I was tired.

I’m still not sure why we always have to go uphill out of a town when we just came into said town on a long downhill. Well I know why, but still it is irksome every time.

Sweet Pea was grumpy and Maddie was speed walking up the hill so I just walked by myself and tried not to think of anything much. My shirt was one hundred percent wet with sweat and I was carrying too much water but the breeze was good

Just about at my limit when Maddie stopped to take a picture of me just close enough that I could aggressively yell I’m taking a break now. Sat down on a rock overlooking the valley far below that we’d just come from. Maddie of course went looking for a shadier spot which also of course didn’t exist so she came back and tried to hide in a semi shady spot but of course got cold because in the shade with the wind it’s cold so ended up in the sun just like me. Silly Maddie hehehe

I finally walked with headphones in playing music! I don’t know why but I for some reason just hadn’t been interested in using headphones yet it was always too hot when I wanted them and felt like effort even though that doesn’t make sense really. The music was reallly nice. Not as good as in a car with Maddie when we can sing along together and it did make me feel a bit isolated but also it was so nice to have the distraction. I need to find new music though because right now all I have downloaded is FLETCHER. I listened to all the albums in order and they’re basically an autobiography very detailed which is interesting in a way but I really need other stuff I cannot keep listening to this

I only got to listen to my music a tiny bit though because there were rattles EVERYWHERE coming from like all the bushes very sketch. Probably maybe because some dirt bikes came zooming by even though they’re not allowed on the trail and maybe they disrupted the snakes? But no music because I need to listen for the rattles.

Downhill is back! Views of green foothills and a reservoir and the power lines. Sweet Pea wants to do 8 more but I’m tired so we will see

No way. Trail magic AGAIN. A little handmade sign and a couple making chicken tacos on a stovetop off the back of a pickup truck. With corn salsa and cheese and grilled scallions and avocado. And also fresh fruit and salad and chips. And lime cucumber Gatorade and beer. And now we can’t make it to the far campsite and we are going just 2.7 more miles YES. And did I mention we saw Brad who was Bread and is now Banana Bread at the breakfast place and again now? So fun! And we are officially now the fastest of our start date but who’s counting. Except us, obviously

We are chatting about queerness and gender perceptions and why generally people hiking the trail seem so chill and also to just be perceiving you as hiker, which is nice except the older men that call us girls. And also we talk about Frog and Toad

And also we are chatting about trail names for us, Sweet Pea says maybe I should be Anyway becuase I say that a lot and I think that’s cool because it has a double meaning of Any Way. Also on his list is Chonk for me and Noodle for Maddie because that’s what I called us when we talked about how our packs look like us because my is a dense solid chonk like me and Maddie’s is tall and thin and noodly just like her. But I think I am looking less dense and chonk-like because of the hiking which is definitely messing with my self-perception

We are set up under a power line and the tent seems to be buzzing but hopefully it’s actually just the power line I don’t think electricity can jump like that and electrocute you hopefully