Kid o’clock was at 5am today. So I guess we woke up then. Which was fine since we had to pack our bags, eat, clean the hotel room a bit and check out before getting back on trail.

The kids were patient and did well. But the later we got the more distracted they got and the slower we were.

We started at probably around 8am. We walked the dirt road on our side of the freeway and connected to the trail quickly. We saw many trains. Secret was excited. One train could see us – we were right in the middle of a wide clearing. I signaled to the driver and got a little short toot from his horn.

The area is very pretty. The rocks are so interesting.

There were some nice climbs with good views. We saw some hikers – some we recognised and some we didn’t. We met Patch. The water cache was a huge party. Lots of water. Lots of the hikers we shared a hot tub with yesterday. Natasha got a beer (all out of pop!) and we hiked on. The others were going to hitch to Wrightwood from the cache but we were going to the recommended PCT route.

I’m glad we did.

It was chill and quick. We got into a green valley and climbed out of it at a nice pace. The views were pretty and the plants were green and air cool. It was just a nice change from the more dry areas and plants.

We saw some people dirt biking on the trail (bad!) but they were friendly and apologized. I’m sure they didn’t want conflict. We got to the dirt road – roughly 10 miles today. Then looked hard for a good spot to pitch our tent. We didn’t want to be next to the road and wanted a soft surface. We found a spot big enough for our tent and I just barely fit it. I hope for low wind tonight.  I couldn’t get a mid line tensioned because of a bush in the way. We are sloped but at least the ground somewhat soft and wind sheltered here. Let’s hope I don’t slide away.

We have like 4 miles more tomorrow then we hike down a road to the highway and get a ride to town. We have a zero planned and a big list of stuff to do.