Mile 444 to mile 454 : KOA camp to The Saufleys
Mileage : 10
Today I saw the Vasquez Rocks, finished Section D of the PCT, and arrived the Saufley's! What a day. I woke up with a start as I rolled off the picnic table I had been sleeping on. Picnic tables are always preferable to the ground, so whenever I'm at an actual campground I sleep on them, but doing so does come with the occasional hazard of a rude awakening. Formal campgrounds come with amenities, but usually you pay the price somewhere, and last night was no exception. It would appear my curse (never being out of hearing range of a small screaming child) is alive and well, and that coupled with the campground floodlights, the busy road and my inability to stay in bed resulted in a rather restless night. None of that mattered though as the hiking was only 10 miles today. 10 miles in the morning goes quickly on the trail, and before i knew it we were passing under Hwy 14 and entering the Vasquez Rocks desert park! The Vasquez Rocks are an incredible rock formation created by the erosion of an uplift of the San Andreas fault tens of millions of years ago and have been a filming location pretty much since the birth of film. And I was there!
The Vasquez Rocks are located on the outskirts of Agua Dulce, which marks the end of section, a small community located halfway between the Mojave and the LA urban sprawl and is home to perhaps the most famous of all trail angels : The Saufleys. I overhead Donna Saufley explaining to hiker that this is their 17 year of hosting hikers like myself, and everything runs like a well oiled machine. There are loaner clothes to wear while yours get washed. There is a planning area for working out resupply for the next sections, there are computers for those like me that need to update blogs and get back in touch with the world. There are tents and cots set up for hikers to sleep in, bikes for going into the town centre, rides organised to camping shops and much more. Tomorrow, there is even a cello concert given by Cuddles, a professional cellist who is giving concerts as a way to kick his skills ticking over. Mostly though it is good to be a bit more civilised and relax somewhere other than under a tree on the trail.
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| The Vasquez Rocks |
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| The PCT emblem is everywhere! |
The Saufleys are indeed 'angels' and their hospitality must be more highly valued than any 5 star hotel to you 'trailers'.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to a pic of the Vasquez Rocks. Did they provide the right acoustic backdrop for Cuddles' recital?
Are you getting burnt Monks? You look decidedly rosy. The scenery is stunning though. Did you build any sandcastles, or does that not fit with the "leave no trace" philosophy?
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