For the last week or so, we’ve been hearing about a large group of hikers that is just ahead of us. There were groups of 80 people at Hiker Heaven before we got there and 100 at Casa De Luna. We’ve heard about the people, but we just now started seeing them.
This stretch is one of the driest on the trail, which means long water carries and carrying lots of extra weight. If you can hike fast, you don’t need as much water, so we woke up early and took advantage of the windy weather. We passed dozens of people this morning. Some were still sleeping, some were just starting. After 19 waterless miles, we saw another large group of people at a spring with good water.
In order to make it to walker pass in the next two days, we wanted to get as much done as possible, so we pushed on.
We made it to mile 600 and we’re planning on mile 609. At mile 608, something magical happened. The trail crosses a dirt road and a minivan was parked there. He had snacks and a cooler full of pop. One of the most remote places on the trail so far, and we had trail magic. It was amazing.
After enjoying our drinks, we hiked the last mile to camp, and water. Lots of other people were at the campsite and someone had made a fire. We sat around cooking dinner and sharing stories from our hikes.
It was a good day.