Hiking Alone

I left Hiker Heaven alone on Monday about 10am. I had been there 24 hours and I was anxious to get hiking again. The people I was hiking with wanted to stay another night and get up early on Tuesday and hike to another trail angel's house known as Casa de Luna or Hippy Daycare. This doesn't sound like my kind of place so I didn't plan a resupply there and wasn't going to visit. I hiked about 17 miles on Monday and got a good night's rest on the trail. I met a few people on the trail also going to Casa de Luna so when I arrived at San Francisquito Canyon Road, after hiking 6 miles Tuesday morning, they all went left and I took a right.

I began hiking along the road because the trail was closed for the next 33 miles due to a fire in 2013 called the Powerhouse Fire. There are three alternate routes for PCT hikers, and I chose the 20 mile road walk because: 1) It skipped the least amount of trail, 2) It seemed the easiest route to follow, which was important since I was alone, and 3) there was an opportunity to buy food at one location along the road.

On my road walk I passed through the small town of Lake Hughes. The sign says population 500, but I'm guessing that was before the fire. The recreation in the area has been devastated by the fire and there are many abandoned buildings and "for sale" signs. There is one restaurant/bar in town and it is popular with bikers. There were a few there today, even though it was raining. I had a burger and onion rings (yum yum) and the hostess allowed me to charge my phone while I ate...so I ate very very slowly, lol! 

After hiking 6 miles on the trail in the morning and 20 on the shoulder of a paved road until about 6pm, I finally returned to the trail again and hiked 2 more miles to get away from the road. I've hiked alone most of the day. I didn't see any other hikers on my road walk. Some, maybe even most, may be using one of the two other options to get around the burn area. (The California Aqueduct route looks interesting, but I wasn't going to do it alone.) I'm in my sleeping bag, in my tent, and for the first time since I started hiking the PCT I really feel alone.

I'm running low on water. I ate a simple dinner and have enough water for oatmeal for breakfast and a half liter to get me to the next water source in the morning. I thought I would find more water while on the road walk, but it turned out to be very dry (while walking in the rain). 

I'm at mile 513 and will reach Highway 58 on Friday!

It's 9:30pm and it's time to turn off my phone and headlamp and go to sleep. Good night everyone. No cell service, so this will have to wait to post until tomorrow!