May 30, Pacific Crest Trail

Destination: Anderson's Casa de Luna
Miles: 24

Adrian:
Thanks to Dave for signing our guestbook!

After buttoning up all our mailing chores we walked the mile into Aqua Dulce for breakfast at the Sweetwater Cafe. Kirsten and I had french toast with two eggs and sausage. I also had a half order of biscuits and gravy.

I've discovered the presence of a new threat to our health, the tick. There were three crawling on me a few days ago and I've seen two questing for hosts on grass blades overhanging the trail. Yesterday, I found one attached to my waist. I grasped it gently and pulled until he let go. After examining it to be sure he was still intact and to verify it was a woodtick, I threw it away. Today the bite is still red and itchy and I'm applying Neosporin to prevent infection. I need to do more frequent tick checks to prevent the possibility of having to get off the trail due to lymes or rocky mountain fever.

We hiked with Fight Club, Steph, and Doc. Doc is a 57-year-young hiker from northern Wisconsin. He's the guy who hiked 2,000 miles of the trail in 1976. Doc has canoed the Missouri river to the Mississippi down to New Orleans. He also canoed across the USA. I'm always amazed at the people from Wisconsin and how they get out and about. It's a proud State.

The Andersons are awesome trail angels as well. If the Saufley's are like your parents, the Andersons are like your college friends from New Orleans. The partying there is legendary. Wild things happened that night but I'm glad to report Kirsten and I were in our tent before the oil wrestling began. Sometimes the trail is like Vegas; what happens on the PCT stays on the PCT.

Walk good...

Kirsten:
Today I learned not all trail angels are built the same. We left the Saufley's with the trail on our minds and no intention of hiking the 24 miles to the Anderson's. The miles flew by - a bit of a time warp - and we found ourselves at the Oasis. The Oasis, about 17 miles from the Saufley's, is more than just a water cache. The Anderson's have etched out a little shade area and decorated the manzanita with monkeys, flamingoes, a palm tree and skeleton. The cache has water and an ice chest filled with tecate and coca-cola.

The cache peeked my curiosity and I started contemplating a night stay at the Anderson's. We reached the road at dusk and Fight Club and Steph walked the 1.5 miles to the Anderson's. About an hour later, Terri Anderson arrived with the mini-van and a couple of other hikers, who had come along for the ride.

The Anderson's house was filled with hikers. It was a little chaotic with the bonfire, beer and new faces. I won't reveal all the details of night. I can say two bottles of vegetable oil and some wraslin' went down.