Day 24 – Saturday, June 17

PCT Mile 454.5 Hiker Heaven, Agua Dulce

Zero Day 

We slept in late, a nice change from the early mornings we had recently, waking to find our laundry had been done. Amazing.

We got dressed and took the 9 a.m. shuttle into the tiny town of Agua Dulce. The shuttle vehicle is an old diesel pickup, which has purportedly held 30 PCT hikers at a time. On one of our trips I counted 17 of us in the truck bed. 

This is the first town that the trail has actually passed through. All the others we've had to hitch or walk down a road.

We ate a big breakfast at the Sweetwater Bar and Grill, one of the four restaurants in Agua Dulce. The chocolate chip pancakes were phenomenal and massive. What more could I ask for? 

We spent most of the day lounging around at Hiker Heaven, reading, drinking water and using the internet to plan the next section of our hike. 

We intended to hike out of town at night to meet Stephen's friend Pete at a road crossing further along, but we ended up staying at Hiker Heaven for a second night after we got word of a wildfire somewhere north. It had started in the afternoon and grew to about 500 acres by 6 p.m. when we learned about it, just as we were headed back to the trail to start hiking.

We called a bunch of different fire stations, the national forest office, and others trying to get information about where it was in relation to the trail. We couldn't get any good information, so we decided to play it safe and stay in Agua Dulce. 

It was disappointing to get all psyched up for a big night hike and then not go, but it wasn't worth the risk.

We're going to be picked up by Stephen's friend Pete tomorrow and spend a few days in LA. We'd planned this even before we started the trail, and it's worked out that our days off will coincide with the first major heat wave of the summer. Lucky timing.

We plan to be back on the trail the night of the 21st. (KAW)