Our rhythm has changed to match that of the land. Wake up time is between 5h and 5h30, this to beat the desert heat and get a couple of hours hiking in the cool. Sleeping in now means getting up at 6h30, while bedtime is between 20h and 21h, since conversely, it gets too cold in the evening to stay up long and we’re usually too tired to do that anyway.
Time to head to Julian today, our first town. We found Thumper (renamed from Doug after he ran into a tree) and Leo (still not accepting his ‘On the Rocks’ name) under a bridge near the highway leading into Julian. Some random people came by and gave us free burrito’s, which we gladly accepted after the long walk along the desert valley.
Leo told me how he hangs his phone from a cord at the top of his tent and binges spongebob episodes at night. It’s the best thing I’ve heard so far today.
In Julian, pct hikers can get a free slice of pie upon showing their permit, which we did, together with Maarten And Valerie.
Pie consumer and enjoyed, we hung out with Katie and Nicks group, and also reunited with Lily, who had caught up to us. Nick bought me a twinkie, since he’d heard of my cultural interest in them. As expected, it tasted whelming.
We got beers and pizza together, which was awesome. It felt like the town was inhabited by people we knew. Julian itself was akin to a movie set, something from an old western.
Afterwards, lily, simon and me hitched back onto the trail. the others stayed at a trail angel’s place or went to an rv park (which main feature was a pool). We got a ride from a young guy named Camdon, a local who worked at his dad’s forestry company. We talked a bit. Apparently all the trees in the area were dying because of an oak beetle infestation. He seemed troubled. He was bitter towards his youth in Julian, and the hard existence he had as a forester. He had a dream of moving to missouri, where he said, he could live the life he wanted. Although he had a sticker on his front window with ‘America, love it or leave it’ on it, I felt for him. He seemed lonely. Afterwards, he refused payment even though the trail was way out of his way, and even asked for our contact details.
We hiked the last 2 miles on trail in the dark and met Dine’n Dash, a guy completing his triple crown (hiking the PCT, Appalachian Trail and Continental Divide Trail) and carrying a ukulele on his back, on the way. We pitched our tent at a terrible location and woke up frequently due to heavy wind. I didnt really care, this was still awesome.