Day 5 (6 April) - Mile 41.47 - 47.54

Mount Laguna Lodge to Laguna Campground

It was very nice waking up in a hotel room. Barbra walked up to the store to get a cup of coffee...surprise, surprise...and came back with coffee and a breakfast burrito to share with Tim. I spent last night and this morning catching up on the blogging which I hope you are all enjoying.

We took advantage of the hotel room and waited till checkout at noon to leave. We only have about 5 miles to hike today, plus it is much cooler than it has been, plus Tim is taking our gear with him and setting up camp for us when we meet him at Laguna Campground, so we aren't in to much of a hurry to leave. We went to the lodge porch to wait for Brad to send a package home with excess stuff he decided he didn't want. While waiting we saw 007 and he decided to start out his hike with us.

Finally at around 12:30 PM the four of us took off. We had to walk a bit through town to get to the trailhead. When we did we did the obligatory daily picture:

Five fingers for 5 days.

Of course Brad and 007 wanted in on the picture action:

Brad and 007

Today's hike was just incredible. It went gently up and down and went through some great scenery including pine forest, amazing vistas, and burnt out areas that are showing signs of life 4 years after a devastating forest fire that ravaged this area;

Beautiful meandering trail

Self-portrait

Burnt trees with mountains

Barbra enjoying the trail.

Forest showing signs of life.

Another self-portrait

We decided to stop at 2:00 PM for lunch just 1.5 miles shy of our stop for the night. 007 said that he was only going to stop for a few minutes because he planned on going another 10 miles to try to catch up with some friends he met on the trail.

Some background on 007: he is from Britain, he is taking a gap year before headed to university to do this hike, he plans on majoring in US Studies because he loves the United States, his father is a pilot for Virgin Airlines, he wanted to ride a bicycle across the US but his father convinced him to hike the PCT instead, he competed for an won a £600 prize helping him fund the hike, and he is looking for the love of his life on the trail who will marry him and make him a citizen of the US.

As 007 left us we wished him good luck and told him we would see him on the trail.

About 30 minutes later we too were ready to leave and finish the last 1.5 miles of the hike.

Checking out the view before sitting down for lunch.

Barbra preparing to continue on.

About 10 minutes later we caught a glimpse of 007 on the other side of the ravine. We yelled out and waved at each other and he was off again.

Follow the pile up and to the right to 007

Even in the last mile of the hike the scenery did not disappoint.

Barbra and large burnt log

We finally popped off the trail and walk the 7/10 mile to the campground and was greeted by a note from Tim telling us what site to meet him at.

Good thinking Tim.

Tim had set up the tent, so all we had to do is carry some stuff from the car to the tent:

Is this really what thru-hiking is like?

As the day progressed we were joined by many other hikers including the herbalicious couple from Lake Placid, the Oregon girl (Theresa) who we met at lunch yesterday, and two older women from Alaska and Iowa who we have met throughout the hike. They are on the trail for only 2 weeks. Originally they planned on making it 160 miles, but now they are hoping to make it 110 miles.

Even though we only hiked 5 miles we were all hungry, so I made my famous Spicy Tuna Noodles for dinner. We had some wood left over from the cabin last night so Tim decided to start a fire for a bit.

Little fire with damp wood.

After a little bit we decided to put out the fire and go to bed. Tomorrow we decided to hike 11.93 miles to Sunrise Trailhead and have Tim pick us up and come back to this campground. So another day of slack-packing to help out sore feet.

Our home for the night.