Tuesday – 3/27 – Mile 68.4 to 77.3 (total 8.9)

Last night we had a mouse creep around the tent vestibule while we were trying to fall asleep. Marcel sat up, shined his headlamp around the perimiter saying “Hey! Shoo! Get!” and that seemed to get the message across. We figured out the next morning I left a bag of trail mix in my pack. Whoops! Luckily for us, the mouse didn’t find it.

We had our first on-trail tiff… While taking down the tent, I slingshot (slingshotted? slingshat?) myself in the nose with a tent pole. It hurt pretty bad and I had a small nose bleed. I snapped at Marcel and started blaming our “system” of taking apart the tent saying he shouldn’t have let go of something or another while I unsnaped this or that. After I cooled off and we hiked ten miles, it was actually kind of funny. I suppose I’m including this because it’s important to remember that although our adventure might appear all flowers and happy days, there are crappy moments too. Hey, we’re human and no couple goes without their fair share of trying moments.

As for the hiking this day, here’s some pics and vids. 🙂

We made it all the way to Scissors Crossing at highway 78, or as Californians would say, “the 78”. From there we had to get a hitch into Julian for rest, resupply and free apple pie. All we had to do was stick our thumbs out and smile, right? Wrong. We waited over an hour as trucks, cars and motorcyles flew by. Then it dawned on me I should make a sign saying where wanted to get dropped off. I wrote “PCT Hikers” and “Julian” below, with a heart as the dot on the “i” of course. It worked! We got a hitch from a young man named Ben on his way home from work who had never picked up hikers before. He said that without our sign he probably wouldn’t have stopped. He had just spent the last few days in the desert “blowing up” shock absorbers and other things his company makes, to make sure they can handle car fires and other extreme conditions. Sounds like a dream job!

Naturally, the first thing we did in Julian was get our free slices of apple pie a la mode at Mom’s Pie House. We just barely made it in time before they closed at 5pm and as we were leaving they were tossing out pie and gave us another free slice!

The next priority was finding Carmen’s Restaurant where hiker’s can stay for practically free and leave a donation of their choosing. We didn’t meet Carmen that day, but her friend Jim, a fellow hiker, gave us the run down. The tables and chairs were moved to the side and the floor was swept to make room for everyone’s sleeping bags. Beer was $1 and the donation jar was on the counter. Among the hikers were Satyr, Riddles, Baby Lungs and Rowdy… trail names are fun. We snagged a space inside, ran a load of laundry, bought a couple of beers, Marcel ate someone’s left over ribs, then went to Romano’s for a proper dinner. The only thing that wasn’t proper was our attire- we ate at a nice italian restaurant in our rain pants and rain jackets. It was only slightly less embarrasing because there were other thru-hikers at the restaurant.