Had a great time with the Moore's--Bobcat hiked with me the first 4.5 miles to Vincent Gap fun time just chatting and looking for sugar pine cones. Can't say enough nice things about these established trail angels (I was their 25th thru-hiker guest this year). Hiked Baden-Powell, and pounded my knee and feet to dust on the rest of the way to Islip Saddle.
Wonderful place found in Agua Dulce--aka Hiker Heaven (and it is) at the Saufley's. These folks are un...real in terms of their hospitality. The breadth and depth of their state of welcomeness :) is past linguistic description. I received a very serendipitous and unplanned magic carpet ride to Agua Dulce in the form of the best car ever, from Jay and Katie, the best new trail angels ever. I originally just wanted to seek a ride down to this restaurant/bar to try to use a phone to call my cousin Will and see if we could hang together in LA for a couple of days (and allow my swollen knee and painful body recoup a little). I was trying to come off as non-scary as possible since I'm a bit scruffy looking these days...when I brought it up, Katie and Jay told me I was completely non-scary, which, I must admit, made me a little disapointed. My secret hope was that I looked really tough and burly....I guess, it's just not so :) After packing up my tent from its perch on the berm of the closed hwy but off of the steep slope, and a few windy miles later on a desolate, rock strewn mountain highway; we arrived at the biker bar (granted, it was about 15 bmw bikes outside, so I wasn't too concerned the SoS were going to walk out. I was still in a bit of disbelief that I actually was given a ride by these wonderful folks. Inside, no chance of a ride, no cell service...I was about to use their phone when Jay and Katie conferenced briefly in private (during which time, I was thinking, could it be they are considering?....naw). Jay told me they'd just take me the whole way to Agua Dulce. I was floored, and grateful, yet still ignorant of just how large a task this was too be. Hwy 2 in the dark is not only littered with the granitic detritus of the San Gabriels it clings to, it appears to wind itself in an endless circle of dead end side roads that may or may not go through--yet, appear to and are unsigned as to their status of patency. Jay did a marvelous job of navigating this road version of a rubic's cube puzzle, and we a fun chatting--well, more me probably--I was just so happy to see people again and got a bout of verbal diarrhea tangential babbling-though it hadn't been all that long since I had been around people. Great folks, and wouldn't even let me give them gas money.
Was Exhausted, and we arrived around 10:30 pm or so....and it was totally OUT of their way. Such a blessing. This put me at the right place so I won't have to skip the Mojave section.
Hiker Heaven is simply the most warm and welcoming place I have experienced thus far.
Hung out with other hikers I hadn't seen in several days, figured out resupply and strategies for the Sierra.
Uploaded photos....for some reason, and I've not had this problem prior to this--all my photos from Big Bear to here went bye-bye...I tried and tried, got help, and they are gone. Bummer. So, my apologies for that. Ok, waaaaay too tired g'nite. Mailing out resupply tomorrow and hiking out tomorrow evening with some fellow PCT hikers as it's become too hot in the daytime for full-on day hiking.
***Note: I've posted a secret picture of the actual CALTRANS map of hwy 2 from Islip saddle to hwy 14. You will not find this published in commercial print anywhere. :)
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