Movie Stars - Wednesday, April 16

As teachers we felt like movie stars. Walk into a restaurant, grocery store or any public space and if a kid from class was there their face would light up and a gleeful "Mr(s). Caley" would fill up the room. These encounters always brought joy and happiness to both parties. When we retired, one of the things we knew we would miss was the notoriety. It is a delight to bring delight to another person. Neither Sally nor I could have ever imagined that hiking the PCT could elevate us to movie star status again. But today's events, coupled with others experienced along the trail showed us a status we did not expect for simply walking a trail from Mexico to Canada. We are treated like movie stars-dirty, smelly ones, but stars nonetheless.
We rose at our usual 3:50, cooked a pot of Cream o Wheat, packed up and hit the trail. The full moon lit the landscape with a magical brilliance and if not for fear of missing a rattle snake laying on the trail we would have hiked without our head lamps. We had 9 miles to cover. Our destination was Scissors Crossing, where highway 78 and S2 meet just 12 miles west of Julian, CA. We hoped to reach the road before noon, hitchhike into Julian, spend the day there eating and feasting and munching and snacking and. . . or at least that is what I was hoping for. Sally was looking for a good meal and a shower and Far Out needed some additional food for the next four days of hiking and a watch. Plus, we just wanted to visit Julian.
We reached the highway at 10:30 and started thumbing. The first car was too small to accommodate all three of us so we began to devise how we would split up. A minute later a camper came rumbling down the road. Sally stuck out her thumb and lower lip, Far Out waved his arms like flagging down a passing jet liner and I stuck out my thumb as well. The two men returning from a weekend in the desert pulled over and helped us into the camper in the back of their pickup. 25 minutes and a very windy road and we we're let off in Julian.

We had read that Mom's, a bakery/deli offered free pie to any PCT thru hikers, so we made that our first stop. Turns out they give a free deli sandwich and a piece of pie! We placed our orders, seated ourselves in the very homey, quaint dining room and soon our sandwiches were delivered. The pies arrived soon after. After our gratis meal we returned to the street and were standing, figuring our next move when a man emerged from his car and introduced himself as Dana, a PCT section hiker. He applauded our efforts, shared some trail stories of his own and then asked if he could do anything for us. I asked if he knew of a store that sold epoxy so I could repair Sally's umbrella. Julian is a gold rush tourist town. We had already tried both grocery stores and the drug store, so he insisted he drive us around until we find some. 25 minutes and 15 miles later we found a hole in the wall NAPA store and acquired my epoxy. Dana is a full time Magician. So before we parted company he did a couple tricks for us. Very cool.
Our last tasks of the day were to fill
our water bottles for tomorrow's climb and hitch hike back to the trail. We went looking for a water spigot and wandered to the Sheriffs office to ask directions when all the town's faucets proved to be dry.
You would think we had walked into a concierge office. Jackie, at the front desk welcomed us warmly, offered the bathroom for us to wash up, the drinking fountains for water, opened an air conditioned conference room for us to wait in and offered us a ride back to the trail head when she got off work! She gave us a number to call if we needed help. Moments later her partner, Irene walked in and said she could take us at 3:30, an hour earlier. We had just short of 2 hours to wash, charge phones, fill water bottles and relax.
At 3:30 Irene arrived and we enjoyed a lively discussion on our drive back to the trail. Irene expressed concern for our safety. We assured her we were okay and bid her thank you and goodbye.
We set up camp and checked out our morning trailhead so we could find it in the dark tomorrow morning.
About an hour and a half later Jackie and Irene returned to the drop off and gave Far Out a watch, something he was hoping to find in Julian but could not. These kind, wonderful ladies must have gone home, found a watch and drove back to give it to Far Out.
This trail is blessed. Blessed with wonderful people. It is more than we hoped for, more than we imagined. It makes us feel like movie stars.

This is more than a trail. It is a culture all it's own.