PCT: Day 35

Today was an eventful day, especially at camp, but definitely not how we expected it to be.  We left Cajon Pass Inn and walked to a gas station to top off our resupply before getting breakfast from McDonald’s.  This might be the last McDonald’s we eat on the trip since, to nobody’s surprise, it doesn’t make for great hiking food.  After breakfast, but before making it the quarter mile to the trail, we got trail magic in the form of fruit from a gentleman whose name I can’t remember. 

Once on trail we started what would be a 6,000ft climb over two days.  We were sluggish a few miles in but made it to a 100 gallon water cache after noon and took a 4 hour siesta.  We set off again with a plan to go a other 5 miles before camping.  There was no shade, but we had waited long enough that it was fairly pleasant.  We saw our 2nd rattlesnake, also a baby, after Bat Boy walked past it.

We made it to camp at dusk and decided to cowboy camp behind some bushes off of a dirt road in the complete middle of nowhere.  We had views of snowy mountains behind us and cities far below us in the valleys.  We all agreed it was easily our favorite campsite of the trip so far.  It would then become our least favorite site a couple hours later.  Blue Lizard woke up to loud music and conversations from someone who had driven up the road in the dark, with no lights on, and stopped maybe a couple hundred feet from us.  Not long after that they started shooting guns which the rest of us somehow slept through.

I woke to the music a little later, and we laid low trying to figure out what to do next.  We didn’t think they had any idea we were there, and we didn’t want to approach them in the dark.  After another ten minutes or so they drove off.  We took this as an opportunity and packed quickly and headed back to the trail.  We hiked another mile until we found a decent spot on the side of the trail around midnight and went to bed for the 2nd time.