PCT: Day 63

The trail treats us with back to back 7 mile water carries today which I can’t remember having happened yet. The first 7 miles meanders through a pine forest with boulders for the kids to play on and plenty of shade. This area looks more like the Black Hills of South Dakota than the desert of California. The first water source is a spring in a lovely meadow where we stop for lunch.

From there we wind through more exposed terrain, but with boulders all around which give a nice change of scenery. We see and hear our first adult rattlesnake, a diamondback nestled about five feet off trail. The trail from here descends continuously to the 2nd water source which is a very well maintained cache. The kids get to it first and I hear a familiar voice asking how their hike had been.

As I come around the corner I realize it’s the Daley family, and they’ve been waiting for us with a proposition. The next stretch of trail dives back into another wind farm with a potential 35 mile water carry which none of us can handle with kids. They ask if want to join them on a 20 mile road walk instead which will come out near a trail town. It doesn’t take much convincing before we agree. Unfortunately, Rockhopper gets a bloody nose as we’re eating before the road walk. He gets them from time to time, but this one took over an hour to stop, and hiking afterwards didn’t seem like a great idea. We lucked out and caught a hitch with a gentleman named Mike who was one of few people we’d seen drive by. We were really looking forward to walking with the Daley family again and were bummed out to have to leave them.

Mike drove us to a hotel in Lake Isabella, but let’s just say it didn’t have a welcoming feel for a family. We managed to get in touch with a trail angel, Teresa, who hosts hikers in the neighboring town of Weldon. She was out of town, but arranged with her mom Beverly, 81, to let us in and show us where to stay. We spent the night in a travel trailer in their backyard and enjoyed all the comforts of town life. The bonus on top was Teresa’s three dogs which gave the kids some much needed fur time.