Susanne's Adventure Journal

20.0 PCT miles I was really comfortable when I woke up this morning. The air temperature was nice and cool and I was enjoying my secluded spot way back in the manzanita forest. I knew I had to get up and get going ASAP, though.  I had a long day ahead of me and, although it wouldn't be as hot as yesterday, I wanted to get in as much hiking as I could before the heat of the day hit. I packed up my tent and tiptoed around the heads of the people who were sleeping right in front of the hidden path to my tentsite. When I got to the front of the house I was surprised to see it crowded with people already. I went inside the house and grabbed a plate of pancakes. As I was coming out I saw Terry on the steps with the bandannas.  I missed the bandanna dancing last night, although I heard it from my campsite. That meant I had to do a little shimmy this morning. Terry said,  “Show me your moves.” I have no moves. I also had a plate of pancakes in one hand and a fork in ...

6.7 PCT miles, plus 2 miles to Casa de Luna I set my alarm for 4:30 am this morning so that I could hike before it got too warm, but didn't get up until 5 am. Not soon after I started hiking, I was passed by a man who said he had started hiking at 4:30. I told him he wasn't alone, as I heard people passing my tent around 3:30 this morning.  The heat of the day is making people hike at night. It was going to be another hot one today. I was only going a couple miles down the trail today to get the Casa de Luna experience. Casa de Luna is the house of trail angels Joe and Terry Anderson.  They open their Green Valley home up to hikers for camping, but also provide pancake breakfasts, taco salad dinners, and commemorative bandannas that you have to dance for. Since I didn’t have to go very far,  I thought I was safe taking the extra half hour to get up. Unfortunately, by 6 am I was already starting to get uncomfortably warm.  I kept going, resting in th...

17.0 PCT miles I had a real hard time getting up this morning. I set my alarm for 4 am, hoping to get through LA traffic to Agua Dulce before the worst of rush hour. However, at 6 am I was still in bed. The bed was so comfortable and the room was temperature controlled. I knew it would be hot on the trail today and it took quite a bit to convince myself to get up. I finally did, but didn’t leave the house until 7 am. With rush hour traffic, it was going to take almost 2 hours to get to Agua Dulce. I was starting to wonder if taking my zero days at home was making me too complacent. It seemed like it would be easy to get sucked back into my old routine and forget about the trail. I got to Agua Dulce just before 9 am and was dropped off at the junction where I had turned off the trail to detour to Hiker Heaven. I was going to start the day with a fairly long road walk (~1.5 miles) out of town, and the heat was already starting to set in. I looked at my thermometer and ...

My first zero day was the typical “where did this day go” type of day. I mainly lounged around the house, eating. On my second zero, day I took care of some business. I made it to the gym in the morning to use the hot tub and stretch out my legs and feet. I resupplied my food bag and worked on adjusting the straps of my backpack.  Not only was it hurting my shoulders, but I had abrasions on my lower back from where both the pack had been moving around and my pants had been falling down. Finally, I strung the replacement part for my tent pole through the rest of the system so that I now have a working frame again. I also went back and watched some episodes of Westworld to see if I could recognize anything. Quite a bit of it was filmed in Utah, but I clearly recognized parts that I had just walked through in Vasquez Rocks County Park. As a bonus, I also recognized parts of the Universal Studios backlot there were used in town scenes.

10.2 PCT miles, plus 1 mile to Hiker Heaven Last night proved to be a difficult night to sleep. For the most part, I have been camping by myself or pitching my tent a little removed from everyone else because I am a restless sleeper with a noisy air mattress. This was the first night that I have camped with a large group of people in quite some time. I had wanted to go to bed early last night, so that I could hike before the heat of the day hit today. However, there were a couple groups of people chatting and laughing for a couple hours past when I wanted to go to bed. The KOA also had a pool so a couple people were playing in the pool after dark. After those fools went to bed, it was my turn to make all the noise with my tossing and turning. All ultralight air mattresses are noisy and make crinkling sounds if you move. The only people who don't make noise at night are those who have foam pads instead of air mattresses. Those pads don't have as much insulation thou...