Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Miles: 32.6
Elevation gain/loss: 8392’/7382′
Start: Montezuma Valley Resort
End: Campsite 4.5mi beyond Mike’s Place
Despite my intentions to sleep until 5am, I was up at 4am without an alarm and walking on the road by 5am. It was around 38 degrees and windy and damp. After a 1.8mi road walk, I was back at the trail. I passed by Eagle Rock and was on the outskirts of Warner Springs by 8:15am and took a detour to the gas station. On the way, I stopped at the fire station for water and chatted for a minute with Dirty Jobs, a thru-hiker from TN who did the AT last year. I was at the gas station by 8:45am where I stopped for second breakfast.
From there, I walked the road back to the trail. As I paralleled the creek, I ran into Rebecca and Bearded Dragon; I knew Rebecca from Instagram and we chatted and hiked together for a little while before I headed back out at pace. It was nice to chat with both of them.
I then played leapfrog for the rest of my day with another thru-hiker, Hot Toddy. I’d actually already seen him before- once 8mi outside of Julian/Scissors Crossing and once today on his way back from the post office. He did the AT in 2019, after 15 years as an accountant for high level places like Amazon, and now is thru-hiking the PCT. He avoids towns for the most part and seems to be very particular about a lot of things, but it was nice to have someone to follow/struggle to keep up with, especially for the last 5 miles. We ended up tenting in the same spot tonight, and we might end up bumping into each other again.
It’s looking like another windy and chilly night. It never got much more than 60 degrees in the sun today and the wind and overcast made it generally around 50-55 degrees. Tomorrow will be more chilly as well and then it’ll be warmer again.
