14 miles
Didn’t sleep well because the wind gusts kept pulling stakes out. Finally, around 11pm, I got the pitch and stakes worked out. By morning the wind had nearly stopped completely, oh well, learning opportunity. A quick 3 miles to water, then another 5.5 where we stopped to have an early lunch, knowing we’d be having a short day. We sat beside the highway in some shade and ate our lunches. Two other hikers came by, Hoops and Forrest Gump. Hoops said that sleeping near the hot springs last night was awful because people were blaring music until midnight. I guess we all struggled last night. Forrest is now the second Forrest we’ve met, but first trailname Forrest. We continued on and the trail walked us around Silverwood Lake. The water had a few boats, jet skis, and fishermen, but not nearly as crowded as I would have expected for a Saturday. Maybe the wind was keeping people away. We leapfrogged Hoops right at the junction to drop down off the trail and go to Cleghorn Picnic Area. It just so happens that Road House Pizza will deliver there so the three of us put in an order. It was damn good pizza (also got a Pepsi and Sunkist, also damn good). There were a few other hikers hanging out in the shade near the water fountains so we all hung out waiting for our food to arrive and talking about what’s ahead and where to stay in town. There’s also word of a fire closure in the next section before Acton, which might make our planned resupply there change to Agua Dulce. Will look into that later. After devouring pizza, we followed the confusing, but sufficient, directions to the Silverwood Lake Campsites, which has a $5/night spot for hikers. We took hobo baths in the bathrooms, pitched the tent nearly perfectly in the most wind-protected spot we could find. I want a good night of rest tonight, we have 19 to do tomorrow, but best of all is that we can hit a McDonald’s right off the trail. Woo!
PCT Hike 