Distance hiked today: 18.4 miles / 29.6 km.
With an early start, I hiked 8.4 miles to the KOA campground in the valley, a common stop along the trail. I had planned to hitchike into the town of Acton down the road for food, but it was going to be a pain and I only needed a few things. The KOA has a small store but only had carbs or canned goods.
So instead I ruffled through the hiker box behind the campground office, sorting through old shoes and random bits of gear to find some nuts and trail mix someone had left. I bought some cheese slices, if you can call them that - the classic individually wrapped cheese-wiz-in-a-square-shape kind that's not even real cheese, because it's all they had. I got some low carb tortillas from Roo who had sent herself too many in her resupply package. Not a bad haul - enough to get me to the next stop.
We washed our socks and I took a shower, which was more like a pressure washer with the showerhead at chest height and such high pressure that I had to step out of it when it started to hurt. I hadn't done laundry so I put my dirty clothes back on.
There were lots of hikers camping there, but I didn't recognize anyone. We've probably entered a new "bubble" of hikers, catching up to slower groups that started before us.
Leaving the KOA, we did 10 miles to the next town of Agua Dulce. The trail goes through Vaskez Rock Park, where some Star Trek episodes and other things were filmed (see me attempt the Vulcan salute). It also passed through a drainage tunnel under the highway.
We got Mexican food in town, and then a trail angel, Nena, invited us to stay in her yard. There were about 12 hikers there, and she had a hot tub, pool, laundry and shower. There were too many people trying to use the amenities so I did hot tub, but skipped the shower and laundry. After a while I just resign myself to the dirt.
Total trail mileage: 454.5 miles / 731.3 km
