Climbing down the mountain

April 29th, 2015

    

I woke up from my camp at around 6 AM. I was around 9000 feet and it was 36° F. I forced myself to get out of my sleeping bag, packed up and then I started heading down the mountain into the desert. The trek from my camp to the next water source was going to be 20 miles.

As I was walked down there were some incredible views of the valley below, wind turbines and the mountains in the distance. It was very steep going down and the trail could use some maintenance but it was nice. 

After about hiking for six or seven hours down I made it to the drinking fountain put in just for PCT hikers. At the faucet there were hikers sitting around talking and filling up their water bottles. 

The next stop where I was going to get my next food package was at Ziggy and the Bear's. If you are wondering who or what Ziggy and the Bear is I don't blame you. It does sound a little strange but let me explain. Ziggy and Bear are nicknames for two trail angels. They bought a house in this town 18 years ago because it was right next to the Pacific Crest Trail and they wanted to help hikers. The house looks pretty typical. It was a gray stucco house with white fence around it and an American flag flapping in the wind. It was also very clean and not too big. The backyard was fenced off and carpeted so that hikers can have a comfortable place to sleep at night. Ziggy and the Bear were probably in their 80s, were very nice and liked to joke around a lot. 

When I got there 30 hikers were sitting around asking for packages to be sent to certain places on the trail. . I told them about my package and they said they couldn't find it but they were going to go to the post office the next morning and I could get it then.

I decided to go walk out into the desert to sleep because I'm not too keen on being around a whole bunch of backpackers snoring.  So I went back out and camped under the desert stars.