I’m finding one of my favorite things about the PCT is the unexpected nature of it. Each day you can expect to walk for miles. You can expect for the skyline and landscape to merge into a tapestry of beauty. But you don’t know exactly how. The humidity or clouds can dramatically shift the contrast, creating a unique display of beauty that’s unpredictable. Often I lay in the tent at night thinking about what the next day will bring. Rarely can I predict it. And more often than not, nature has a better plan than I can imagine. 

But, the beauty of the unexpected goes beyond just scenery and reaches into moments, often punctuated by people and sometimes the absurd.

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Day 9 and 10 fly by as Rachel and I begin to hit our stride. On day 9 we awake to better weather, after a night of rain tapping on our tent. But it’s one of our best nights of sleep yet, as the wind has let up

We wind around ridgelines looking back at the hills of Mt. Laguna from where we came. The clouds layer over the mountains like icing on a cake. They lift up higher as the day goes on, splitting to allow more blue to shine through the gaps. Occasionally a gust of wind still smacks us in the face as we round around the corners of the mountains.

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Shortly after midnight we awake to gusts of wind knocking our tent around like a piñata. The tent flops and twists with each blast of nature’s breath. Then it’s as if the foot of the desert god is pressing down on our tent, threatening to crush our little home. The rain fly flaps against our walls.

We pop outside to rerig our stakes then cozy back inside our fabric home. The desert god keeps up his antics, and we eventually learn to ignore them, barely drifting off to sleep as nature’s tantrum settles. We sleep in until 8:30, then we hit the trail. The other two hikers near us have already left. 

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We start day 7 with coffee and breakfast from the hotel. It’s a delicious meal of fresh fruit, poached egg, polenta and bread. Our gear is clean and packed in our bags. Our faces are clear of the previous days grime. We sit fresh on the hotel porch awaiting our ride back to the trail. 

We arranged yesterday, to get a ride with Legend, a…. well, legend on the PCT. Yesterday, when I met him on the sidewalk of Julian he explained his system. He plays trail angel around Julian at the start of the season then shoots up to WA at the end of the season to continue his work assisting hikers in need. He’s agreed to meet us at 9 am outside our lodge and take us back to the Sunrise Highway trailhead where we escaped yesterday.

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