Anywayssss the adventures of the past week have been plentiful! So I'll pick up where Casey left off. We were greeted by Mel last weekend in Wrightwood (which is a beautiful mountain town) and it was so nice to have more visitors! She came baring gifts of cheese and crackers too! Sadly I neglected to take any pictures of our time together, but I promise she came ☺️
We woke up last Monday ready to get back on the trail. We went all of 2 miles and then had to walk on the road due to a closure on the trail to protect the endangered Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog. So after 7 miles of walking on the road we then got to get back on trail. The point of this is to say I'm so curious about this frog but keep forgetting to google it.
We slept the next two nights at fire stations. These fire stations in Angeles National Forest are really friendly to hikers, and that's been great. Otherwise, Tuesday and Wednesday were a blur of brutal sun and heat, and trying to avoid Poodle Dog Bush. This is an extremely poisonous plant, that if you get the oil on your skin you get boils that have hospitalized people. So we missed an alternate route that went around the thick of this shit, and I'm still convinced we'll be dead from boils here soon. Just kidding, it probably would have shown up by now, but it was just super annoying to have missed the alternate route. I also found myself getting really filthy these days as well (see below).
Thursday we found ourselves with a short 8 mile trek into Acton. Every time we get to town it's as if we haven't eaten for days. So after going to the post office, we quickly went out for Mexican food. We had intended on hiking back out that day, but we found ourselves at the Acton campground with a bunch of other hikers and instead succumbed to the temptation to just stay. We played bullshit and I haven't played that since high school maybe, so that was fun. We also were woken up in the middle of the night here by lions mating ... turns out Acton is home to a wildlife refuge that the actor from The Birds is responsible for (Tippi Hedren). So that was kind of neat and random and not bizarre at all. Oh and Casey woke up to a mole poking it's head out at her tent!
Yesterday we then walked all of 10 miles to Agua Dulce, which is a super hiker friendly town as well. We had to walk through Vasquez Rocks Natural Area, which was quite beautiful. Once we got to town, we got lunch (per usual) and then found ourselves at 'Hiker Heaven,' which is where I write this from. This place is like a playground for hikers, as Casey aptly noted. We got to shower and do laundry and enjoyed a campfire. I also got a birthday bottle of wine left for me here from Dave that Casey and I enjoyed ☺️
Today we are waiting for the heat of the day to pass before we get back on the trail. This heat has been brutal. And we are avoiding it at all costs! The Mojave is coming up and we're both kind of dreading that. But then comes the stark contrast of the snowy Sierras after that. So in the meantime we are feeding the pet horses here and spending too much money in town.
All in all we are doing well! As Casey said, trail names are a big deal and we have maybe successfully implemented being called Beyoncé, so that's neat. If that sticks I'll be more pleased with that then being called 'avocado.' It's crazy that we've been hiking for a month now, and sleeping outside for the better part of this month as well. I'm excited about what is yet to come, and that is honestly the biggest motive to keep going because I know we haven't even gotten close to seeing the most beautiful parts of the trail yet. So poco a poco it continues! We still can't say thank you enough for all of the love and support we have gotten along the way, it truly keeps us going.
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