Day 44, Mile Marker 455-472+, Leona Valley

Friday, June 7, 2013 

Stats until Bouquet Canyon Road (Mile Marker 466)
Hiking Uphill: 2732ft
Hiking Downhill: 1746ft
Distance Hiked:  11 miles

Then we started a detour to avoid the Power Station Fire Detour on the road at 466
Additional Distance Hiked ~6 miles

Post by Melissa:
It was time to start this detour and we woke up early and were quick to get out the door.  We had packed up the day before thinking we were going to leave that night (but didn't) so our stuff was all ready to go.  We had even slept in our hiking clothing so we could get a quick start. We had thought that we would have to walk the mile down the Saufley's road back to the trail but were happy to learn that another hiker Achilles was there helping out the Saufley's and he offered us a ride down the road to the trail.  AWESOME!

View of the main trailer where we could cook, get coffee, etc.  I donated the remaining margarita salt to future hikers and left it on a condiment shelf to the right that you can't see here.

Hikers getting ready to start their day.  You can see grey plastic tubs on the right side of the house.  Those are hiker boxes.  I had left a bag of candy in the hiker box the day before and it got demolished! LOL  I saw snickers flying everywhere...

As we were saddling up to leave we went towards the front of the garage near the "Post Office" and I noticed a plastic tub with smaller letters and packages in it for hikers that I had not seen the day before.  I was surprised to see that one of the larger padded envelopes had my name on it.  I quickly grabbed it and saw it was a care package from my friend Jeannette!  Holy smokes...I nearly missed it and would not have received it had I not happened to glance that way.  I quickly cut it open and was ecstatic to see it was full of our favorite candies.  I took a picture of the goodies and texted Jeannette a huge thank you and then shoved the snacks in my pack and off we went.

Loved how she printed a pretty picture and taped it to the envelope.  The back of the envelope was super cute too! Love the details and care that went into the packaging.

At our first break I happily snacked on the Annie's fruit snack that Jeannette had sent.  I love these things.  If you haven't tried them before I highly recommend them.  They are delish!

We climbed nearly 2,700ft on the 11 mile section of the trail to Bouquet Canyon Rd where we would start the Power Station Fire detour and start the road walk.  At the top of the climb we found some trees and some much needed shade.  The most bizarre thing was waiting for us though.  A large gopher snake was hanging out in a hole in the tree right next to us.  Nick couldn't help himself...he had to hold it.  This one was really calm and seemed to enjoy the attention.

When we were finishing up our rest break another hiker rode up on her horse and we switched break spots. This gal is attempting to ride the entire PCT trail on her beautiful horse. It's really impressive to hear this as many parts of the trail are very challenging.  She is kicking butt!  Her brother is supporting her and meets her along the trail when it crosses roads with water and food for the horse.  He also is pulling a horse trailer and at night they all get together to sleep.  Amazing...

This day was really hot.  Easily over 100 degrees at 1:30pm.  We were baking.  We hurried down the mountain towards Bouquet Canyon Rd enjoying a descent for a change.

I made a wish and blew all of the seeds off this dandelion!

Nice views while descending

Lakes in the distance

When we reached Bouquet Canyon Road we were happy to find a small water cache provided by the Andersons (Casa De Luna).  We only took a few liters each since the cache was very low.  We took a quick break as well and then started the road walk.

Yep, time to walk the road...Cameron (brother of the hiker w/the horse) had drove by w/his Sister and Horse in tow and had offered us a ride and water (great guy!).  I would have loved the ride but the boys didn't want to skip any portion of the walk from Mexico to Canada so we said no thank you and watched them drive on ahead.

The road walk was very hot and difficult.  One would think that walking on a flattish surface would be okay, but it's surprisingly difficult in 100 degree weather and no shade.  Our feet were hot and we were sweating a ton.  There was no shade and no where to rest.  We pushed on for about 4 miles and then reached the city of Leona Valley. We were super excited to come across a Mexican Restaurant and went inside for some food and drinks (we noticed the hiker w/the horse was already there finishing up lunch w/her brother).  We were shocked though that the Manager working their was very rude and didn't seem to want to serve us.  We were so hot, sweating, and needed a cold drink fast and he was giving us a hard time.  We eventually got sat and were irritated.  Rustic looked on his phone and found out there was another restaurant around the corner. We decided to go there instead but quickly drank a pitcher of margaritas and ate some free chips and salsa and then got the hell out of there.  I've never had such rude service.  I can't help but feel like he was discriminating us because of the way we looked...not cool!

We walked across the street to Creekside Cafe and were welcomed their with open arms.  We ordered pizza, burgers, and beer and were soooo happy to be out of the heat. The young male server who waited on us was awesome and he even filled up our platypus bags with cold fresh water for us.  Our goal was to hike another 4-5 miles after dinner but we were not sure where we would set up camp for the night.  We were walking right down a road with residential houses on each side that had fences running along the road keeping us off of their property.  There was a table of firemen near us and we asked them if they could recommend a place for us to sleep.  There were no campgrounds anywhere around so they told us we could sleep at the volunteer fire station which was half a block away.  We decided to take that option and seeing that our bellies were extremely full and a food coma was setting in we gladly agreed that we would set up camp there and get an early start tomorrow.  We'd need to put in 25 miles tomorrow since we only did 15 today...our feet were sore and tired from the road walk and new blisters were forming.  It was good to get an early night's sleep.

We cowboy camped right in their parking lot on the dirt!