Gert and I leave camp at 610, and 15 minutes later, I stop to take my jacket off. There’s a trail saying, “Be bold, start cold” for a reason. My jacket is so efficient that I go from feeling warm to struggling to get it off before it cooks me. I’ll take a lot of spider webs to the face and my right pole is streaming with them. This hike is beautiful and enjoyable and we don’t have to focus on our feet.

We keep expecting to be passed by Trailer Park or Rachel and stop at a stream where we both see a mouse, just not the same one. We stop for a snack at 930 and Trailer Park catches up. He tells us that Rachel stayed behind to call her sister and wasn’t sure about Lyric. I led the three of us through the increase in day hikers and the mountain biker who had to walk his ride over the rocks. It’s a three-mile hike from the PCT to our spot in Serrano Campground that we reach before noon.

The woman at the booth recognized me and gave us the hangtag for the site. She held onto the one Caleb would need when he arrives with his sister, Jessi, from the Ontario International Airport (the one in California as the province in Canada has many, but they prefer to call theirs Moosonee and Muskrat). They will reach camp with cookies and Gatorade before Rachel.

The push-button showers are the closest I’ve come to the prison version. You have to lean into the button and the water sprays into your soul and over 85% of the room. I’m not able to scrub much nor do I want to. I turn around as long as my patience will allow because I know I need a good rinse and then I can return to our camp for a live episode of MASH.

Caleb is helping Jessi perform first aid on Gert’s infected blisters, and if she hadn’t thought what was coming out was so gross, perhaps I’d have a picture to share. I can tell you the size of misfortune he and Ravi are willing to put up with is ridiculous. I’d still be limping in the shade somewhere begging the squirrels to bring me food while my wounds healed – or at a medical clinic!

When Rachel is cleaned up we will go with Trailer Park to town so we can do laundry and get groceries for the evening. It’s $2.50 to wash and I forgot to bring Caleb’s stuff and half of mine. We ran the dryer for a bit but agreed to hang our stuff upon return. Trailer Park decides to treat us to grilled chicken, salad, corn on the cob, and asparagus among the many other foods we will consume.

A hiker’s hunger is like a group of teenage boys who have been outside playing all day and forgot to eat. People give me a hard time about the amount of food I’m able to consume off-trail while also claiming I eat like a bird. Out here, we eat to keep our muscles and faces from disappearing. Dinner was delicious, and Rachel got dessert. We climb into our tents at 830.