Day 33 - Hiker Heaven to the Oasis cache

I managed to postpone our exit from Hiker Heaven until around 9.
At one point a group of hikers was digging a 6" deep trench for a pipe for the gray shower water to go to other side of the yard, instead of into the troublesome septic tank. I lent a hand.

A view back on the trail. Nice switchbacks.

Yesterday a reporter from Backpacker magazine interviewed Donna Saufley for their next issue. And since then a photographer was hanging around, shooting hikers doing hikers' stuff at the Heaven. He had a blast with all the hikers digging and moving dirt, you will definitely see some photos from that bit. I think he made every effort to avoid getting a photo of me, so I won't be on next month's cover. Or anywhere.
Well, we finally left the Heaven, and I got a good hug from Donna. I was surprised she remembered my trail name, and she wished me to enjoy my hike. It was very nice.
We got a ride to the trail head, saving us some annoying in town road walk, and headed out. The weather was hot, but it was a bit windy which kept things all right for me.

Siesta and Bomber having a nap.

At first we climbed up a small ridge, and saw Agua Dulce from the top. We finally reached a nice shady tree at the end of the climb, and met Cheese, Bomber and Siesta resting there. We joined in, and had a short nap, before heading over to the next spot.
That next spot was the first cache of the day. Another nice shady spot, the same cast of characters, and a shorter nap this time. From there, it was mostly a climb.

Nice view on Bouquet Reservoir. Sadly, we didn't end up there.

After finishing that final climb of the day, I put on some music to run the final, short, bit down to the cache. I reached it to find Baby Wipes resting a bit before heading out to Casa de Luna, and Gabriel and French Toast, who just reached there before me.

Baby-Wipes and Cheese at the Oasis Cache

Alpine-Start and French-Toast

The sodas and picnic chairs were very nice, and we rested for a bit before looking for tent spots. It wasn't easy to find a good tent spot around here, but we managed to find a relatively flat area in between some trees, on the other side of the trail.

Day 29 - pct mile 384 to fire station at mile 419

So, after a nice warm night at the parking area, we were planning on hitching on the mostly deserted highway in order to get around some closure, and skip the ultra long (19 miles) official alternative and somewhat shorter old alternative.

4 happy hikers, after a wonderful ride down the trail. Thanks, Barbra.

The hitching bit seemed to be the problem. We were just waiting for cars to come around, when Kyle and Snail Trainer came down from Little Jimmy campsite together with Barbra, a weekend hiker they've met up there last night. I immediately zoomed in on the car they were heading to, and asked her if she might be going in the direction we needed.
Apparently, Kyle and Snail Trainer were planning on hitching a bit further than our original plan, and it took very little persuasion to get us on their plan. So, we hitched from 386 to 399. Skipping all detours, and a bunch of trail miles. Sorry.
Down the trail from 399, I admit I wasn't really excited crossing the 400 miles mark. It's not like I walked it all. Oh well. A bit later we got to our water source, and filtered some yellow colored water from a spigot. They tasted fine.
Onward, the trail crossed the highway another time, and finally stopped following it. Near Sulphur spring it got a bit strange, with one trail going down to the water, and the other remaining on the ridge. We weren't sure which one was the pct, so we just remained on the ridge, and made our lunch stop just after they met again. Oh - and we actually took a nap of about 20 minutes!
From there, the trail kinda went up slowly, going over big areas with a lot of Poodle Dog Bush we were trying to avoid. They supposedly cause skin irritation, but I'm not sure I'm sensitive to it at all.
The next water source was a nice spring near the end of the climb, and I had my 1 liter Gatorade drink from it. That was a nice spot.
Just about an hour further, we reached a very nice area for resting, full of hikers. Penguin was just getting there and heading out, and Sunbeam was there (and I didn't recognize her at first with her hat on) and many other new faces.
We rested there shortly, and then I put on my music and headed down the final 5.5 miles to the fire station. It was an easy trail, and I think I raced it in under 2 hours. That was rather fun.
Here, at the fire station we all crashed under a nice pergola, filling up our water, and cooking dinner, and charging phones. After a while most hikers headed down a bit further to the campground by the road, though a few headed out to hike 5 more miles today. That's hardcore!