October 26

Distance: 24.2 miles | Ascent: 5440′ | Descent: 2950′

Mile marker: 2244

Lunch: J&A – chicken salad (B+)

Dinner: J&A – magic! (A+)

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The trail crew wasn’t lying! A rugged old man they called Captain Jim cooked us pancakes and bacon and eggs inside a custom kitchen trailer he had built. Breakfast was delightful. Sometimes, we feel like celebrities. All we’re doing is walking! We love and appreciate these gifts from strangers, but also feel unworthy at times. Our hunger pushes aside our timidness, and we happily scarfed down the brekkie.

We hit the trail and were treated to wide open views. Oftentimes, the trail was visible a good ways ahead of us. This bothers some hikers, but we enjoy having eyes on where we’re headed. 

We were also tipped off that there would be more trail magic at lunch. One of our hike buddies has a friend in LA who was planning to meet us at a trailhead in the afternoon. We were expecting something like Oreos or Gatorade.

Because we stayed at camp for breakfast, we didn’t quite beat the heat of the day before a major climb. We stopped for lunch beforehand to power up the hill.

When we got to the trailhead, we were astonished to see a grill, coolers, and a table absolutely covered with snacks. It was one of the biggest and best trail magic setups we’ve encountered all trail. The trail magician was a thruhiker themselves. They did a section hike of NorCal this year, mopping up where they had to skip due to fires in a prior year. They knew what hikers crave: fresh fruit, chips and salsa, burgers, vegetables! It was a smorgasbord! As is always the case, we were refused when we offered to pay for our treats. We’ll pay it forward someday.

We loitered and talked for close to three hours. We had an even more major climb coming out of the trailhead. We waited until the sun was setting and the air was cooling off to tackle it. Powered by our feast, we crushed the 6.5 mile, 1900′ ascent in less than two and a half hours. We hiked and camped with TimTam. It’s nice having another friend at the same pace.

In the night, we could see the blinking red lights of the wind turbines wayyy in the distance. It had only been a week since we passed them, but time is weird on trail. It feels more like a lifetime ago we were there.