Caleb and I sleep in. It’s already 9am when we’re making breakfast in the room because the hotel does not offer it as pictured and advertised. We grab Gert and drive back to Hiker Haven to pick up Trailer Park and Rachel who will nap on the way to Onyx Summit Trail. They will hike from here to Doble PCT Camp, 14.3 miles, and Gert will go with them, even though he was supposed to take a zero-day.

We drive to the Stanfield Marsh Wildlife and Waterfowl Preserve because I have an affection for a good boardwalk. We walk across two that connect a paved bike path and, on our return, get to see a mother coot with her cooties (grade school made this seem like a negative thing). We watch for a while as we’re in no rush. We spend the rest of the afternoon driving around.

We go to Serrano Campground but they are booked for the night. We go across the street to the day-use area to get water and the woman seems confused, “You didn’t go to the store?” We let her know we already have bottles, we just want to refill them. She points us back across the street and they let us use the waste station for RVs to get potable water.

We drive to one of two spots where the PCT crosses the road near here but leave after encountering crazy, hoping he’s not here when our trail friends arrive. We drive back to the campgrounds to ask about reserving the next night as we want to use tents at an RV site and the woman says she’ll be working again tomorrow, so we can stop by.

We drive out to where the group will be camping because Caleb sees two spots on the map and wants to be sure where we’re going. We find it, a picnic table and ADA-compliant bathroom minus its door, and return to the pickup site as Gert messages me. He and Trailer Park are waiting, so we take their bags and they’ll do the other two miles while we stay back for Rachel and drive her closer.

There is already someone sitting at the table when we arrive. Caleb and Rachel set up their tents, and when the guys arrived, we went back to the car for their bags and the King’s Hawaiian bread and salty watermelon whiskey we picked up earlier. Usually, we get two loaves, one for me to eat on the way home and one for later. Tonight, I will cut it into eight pieces to share.

As we start dinner we learn more about this young man who turns out to be another kid who’s just 18 from Arkansas named Lyric. His dad hiked the first week with him and his friend was in town with an injury. He’s got spirit and already knows to tote plenty of water through the desert, so he’s also known as Hydro, but Lyric is so unique. He plans on going a few miles further than us tomorrow, just not starting as early.