PCT: Day 54

We get up this morning with the plan to be lazy until we start night hiking.  We’re pretty successful on this front.  We catch a ride into the Neenatch market for breakfast along with General and the Daley family.  The hiker lounge at the market is open today, and we eat while all of the kids play.  Our kids take a little while to remember how to play with younger kids and play hide and seek in the lounge while the adults visit.

We catch a ride back to Hiker Town after eating and finish prepping food and gear for the evening.  The kids take our extra bubbles to the other family’s kids to play with, and a little later both of our families are hanging out and visiting again.  We’ve really enjoyed having the chance to talk to another family about the insanity and enjoyment of doing this as a family.

We set out on trail with General around 6pm with the plan to try to make it 17 miles to a water cache before crashing.  The first few miles fly by as we walk next to and then on top of the LA aqueduct.  At one point we look up to see what would normally be an unusual site, a 3 year old running down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, but this puts a smile on all of our faces as we know it means we caught up with the other family.  We walk together for the next few miles, continuing to have great conversations until they stop for the night.

We continue on with General as night sets in and pull out glow sticks to liven things up.  We manage to make it a little over 10 miles when Bat Boy says he’s too tired to continue.  He isn’t the only one so we find a campsite next to a dirt road (I know, right, our least favorite thing to camp next to).