PCT day 5

Day 5 - mile 55 to 71 plus half mile for water about 16+ miles

Woke up at 5:30 am. Robin's nose was running all night, and when she blew her nose, ended up with a huge bloody nasty nose. She couldn't get it to stop for about 20 minutes, so grant had to pack up most of the gear himself. Finally underway at about 0620.  Robins throat was so sore that morning that she couldn't talk at all except to scream "I can't talk 'cause my f*ing throat hurts!" Ah, the joys of a 14 year relationship is that we'll still make it after mornings like that.

Sunrise over Anza Borrega was beautiful, but it was getting hot fast. Made it 5 miles to our first water source at sunrise trailhead at 0930. It was like the office, everybody standing around the water cooler telling  stories. We got water, washed our socks and underwear (in plastic bags away from the tank) brushed out teeth, ate second breakfast, the usual. At about 1030 this kid came over and asked us if we had the water report. "Yes, do you?". He thought we must be Moro s so he would help us out. Dumb kid hadn't even packed up his tent wereas we had been hiking all morning already. Hike your own hike. We didn't feel like arguing over where the next water source was. We knew we had more current information as WD had downloaded it the previous day, and we didn't want to be told to carry 8 liters of water when we only needed 4. Lots of help out here, but lots of chances to have well meaning people corrupt your day.

Saddled up at about 1045. Hot hot hot. Made it to bottom of a small valley.near mile 64 chariot canyon " road" and napped in some scarce shade from 1230 to 2:30pm. Hot hike out of the valley, chaparral landscape. Forgot to mention those pine trees were very short lived! Finally made it the nine miles to our next water source at Rodriguez Road mile 68. Great cold water, just like the water report said, yet almost everybody else wasn't expecting it. We may be old, but this ain't our first rodeo! They were smartly not counting on it because previous reports suggested there was a leak in the water tank, but as of April 14 there was an update saying it was OK. That's the thing though. We weren't going to insist to anybody they were wrong because they are hiking their own hike, and its annoying. Plus what if we were wrong? Then we would have f'd over a bunch of people. Its all OK though.

Onward we marched to get a little closer to Julian. Ate dinner just past the water source, then marched on until 7:00pm where we found a small bump out in the trail to pitch our tent. After falling asleep at about 8, I was woken by two jerks night hiking. They repeatedly flashed their headlamps into our tent and yelled about how it was a great campsite. I almost wish I had jumped out of the tent to beat them with a stick, but decided to ignore the bastards and go back to sleep instead. Oh the joys of hiking with the herd.

Photos on instagram