It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.
– Mae Jemison

Figure 8:

I woke up at 6:40 ready to take on the day. I told Rob I was going to the stream to get us water for the 8.5 mile hike to Hwy 178 and then we could pack up.  It was already sunny and warm when we got on trail at 7:30.  The hike this morning was one of my favorite so far.  Big open views of the mountains, some new flowers, patches and patches of yellow flowers and pine trees.  I had a very strong feeling as I was hiking that I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing at that moment.  I was overwhelmed by the postcard beauty I was walking through while listening to The Xx and then Stevie Nicks.

I love all the colors of lichen we have seen in the past two months

 Daddie Gizmo was also having a great morning and the miles to the highway went fast.  We arrived at Walker Pass campground where we planned to hitch a ride, signed the trail register and saw that there was a cooler there with cold sodas and a sign indicating food and rides to town below.

Trail magic at the trail register

Instant smiles and even more pep in our step!  We hustled down below to find Carly, an amazing trail angel, waiting with donuts, sandwich fixings, cold beer, whiskey, sodas, Oreos, bagels and more.  This was heaven.  Also there was the lady we met on the horse as well as a couple other hikers.  We all sat around and chatted, laughed, ate and drank at 10:30 in the morning.  Carly and her friend Hannah (who was also helping but was picking up more donuts when we arrived) had done two weeks on the trail this year and decided it wasn’t for them.  They love the trail though and wanted to still be involved so they decided to do the other side – trail angeling.  They were both great.

Us, Carly, Rex and Tatters

Me & Carly

Giz gets in on the action

We really enjoyed hanging out with everyone until about noon before cramming ourselves and 5 other hikers into their SUV to get to Lake Isabella. We all smell pretty bad so we couldn’t actually smell how bad the car smelled with us all in it, but I am guessing Carly could!  She dropped the others off at a hotel where they were sharing a room and then took Rob and I  to the grocery store where she also had to pick up a few items.  We grabbed steaks and baked potatoes to make for dinner and sausages for breakfast.  Carly then dropped us off at Haven RV park where we planned to camp for the night.  We still needed to get to the post office to pick up packages and fortunately just as we layed our bags down in the camping area Jene, the property manager, came by and asked if we needed to go into town.  Amazing! She took us by the post office and brought us back with our 3 packages – bounce box, wonderful box of goodies from a friend and another from my father in law.

Thanks friend!

Thanks Papa!

It was so much fun to go through them and see what goodies we had.  Haven turned out to be a fantastic spot for us for the evening.  Jene and her daughter, Grace, are both very sweet and kind.  We both took our first showers in a week and feeling fresh and clean hung out with Grace (who is 8) who sang and played guitar for us and then made a delicious dinner.

Me & Grace

Grace adorned me with a rose 🌹

We smothered the potatoes in cheese and sour cream and butter.  I ate every last bite.

No plates. Hiker trash using newspaper instead 😉

That’s a happy guy eating his steak potato!

They have a shared media/Rec room by the grills and since we were the only people camping here we had the place to ourselves, we pulled out the TV trays and ate and watched tv like it was our own house.  A very nice treat.  We stayed up till almost midnight and then slept the hard sleep of someone who has walked 94 miles in the last 5 days and finally got a hot shower and good meal.