This morning we are just about the last ones to leave camp. There were several other hikers out here on the ridge last night with us.

Al let me know just as we are leaving that he has to dig a cat hole.

Think litter box, a cat hole is a six inch hole that your solid human waste has to go into and then you bury it. There are no toilets out here. So he’s off attending to that I’m just going to wait up the trail for him. So I climbed up this huge steep hill and look back to see him coming back and putting on his pack. Maybe 5 minutes, and I’m waiting to see him head in my direction. I take a picture. It’s beautiful up here.

Another 5 minutes. Where is he!!?? I start to get upset, what the heck!! I’m waiting and waiting. I try calling him! Another 5 minutes! Finally I head back down the hill and ask the last guy there , “where did Al go”?

“Down the trail” he says, I’m thinking, wasn’t I on the trail? He points to the trail sign that I somehow missed. Maybe 20 minutes now have gone by.

So I frantically start running down the trail, then it turns rocky, I have to slow down. I’m yelling his name over and over. 10 minutes of this. I’m looking for his body in case it went over the edge. Im thinking how could he think I would have gone this far without him. I’m rushing as fast as I can. To catch up with him. The trouble is Al is doing the same thing!

He is thinking how could I have gone so fast down this tricky path. He was checking over the edge for my body. He was going as fast as He could! So another 10 minutes go by and Al calls my phone. I yell, “Stop! Just stop where you are ! I’m behind you”!

So that was probably the fastest mile we will ever do on the PCT.

The trail weaves around and I see some new cactus we haven’t seen before.

The trail continues to weave around these ridges. Finally we come down from the hills and the trail leads into the what appears to be a desert.

We walk across Rodriguez Canyon past Stagecoach Campground which we heard had chili dogs tonight but decided to get a couple more miles in today. We go on to the Underpass. This underpass is kinda famous to PCT hikers. There is usually trail magic under there and in bad weather you can tent under there too.

There was trail magic, gallons of water and mandarin oranges. We needed the water. I rested while Al did all the work.

After Al filled up and he then rested, we crossed the highway and started climbing the San Felipe Hills. I’m notoriously afraid of heights and being on a ledge. That’s exactly what we did for the next 2 1/2 miles until we made camp.

I’ll put that in tomorrow’s post.

Until then, Be Well.