We left the KOA as early as we could manage so we could get to Agua Dulce for lunch at the Mexican restaurant. There were lots of hikers just hanging around being loud at 6:30am. I’m sure all the people camping there who aren’t hikers were thrilled. As we got back to the trail and started hiking Jake noticed all the footprints were headed the other way. We were headed in the wrong direction! Since we had gotten a ride all the way around the closure nothing looked familiar and I took us the wrong way. Once we corrected ourselves it was smooth sailing.
We wound our way through Vasquez Rocks, taking plenty of pictures and reading all the educational signs. We learned the names of a bunch of the plants we had been seeing. Vasquez Rocks has apparently been the backdrop for many tv shows and movies. A little bit of a road walk and we had made it to Maria Bonitas, yay lunch!
We ended up spending a couple of hours eating all the chips and salsa we could manage and drinking huge beers. I didn’t intend to order the biggest beer they offered the server just brought them. We were both uncomfortably full when we left and I had to loosen my hip belt for our afternoon hike.
A little more of a road walk and then hiking through a burn area to find a camp site. The burn was actually very pretty with yellow poppies all over. We were climbing all afternoon but it wasn’t too bad because it wasn’t blazing hot. We found a campsite right next to the trail but it had great views and was mostly flat.
PCT Hike 