Letters from the Pacific Crest Trail #2

Finding a little shade

5/12/2006
A Note from Wrightwood

Hello Friends - thank you all so much for your wonderful letters and words of support and encouragement. Ben and I, along with 3 other friends that we have met along the way, are in Wrightwood CA until tomorrow morning when we will again be on our way heading North, our next stop Aqua Dulce.

The weather has been sunny and warm, or should I say hot, we experience 2 days of 100+ degree weather and we aren't even in the Mojave Desert yet. I cannot explain in this short email what a wonderful time we are having, the challenges we have faced and the people we have meet. Somehow, the trail brings that best out in people, kindness abounds and smiles are everywhere - campfires, sharing of snacks when the food bags are just about empty and your stomach is screaming to be fed, songs being sung at the top of our lungs as we climb 5000 feet out of the sweltering heat of Cajon Junction, beneath the almost full moon of a clear Southern California sky, finally making camp near midnight on the only flat ground for miles; the trail.

We are consuming more junk food that I ever thought possible and somehow still manage to work up an appetite for dinner. We are taking photos and if I am not too tried, trying to keep a journal, so many more details will come - unfortunately, there is a fairly short time limit on library computers, so it makes it a bit difficult to fully fill you all in. In a nut shell - the sun is out, my feet are in pretty good shape, and merino wool in the way to go (vs. synthetics) if you don't want to smell yourself or the others you are around. Also, for those of you that I would love to contact as I make my way north, I have most likely left your phone numbers in Portland; could you send them to me via email - please :-)

Thanks to all of you, Ben and I are so thankful to have good friends. I will be in touch soon - hope for melting snow in the Sierras and cool weather in the Mojave - Serena, S1, Scarecrow and Leo

The rain begins to fall

Beauty in the desert