Day 5-7: Julian

April 9-11; Mile 59-77

Day 5

As luck would have it we had camped 0.2 miles from a viewpoint turnout on the highway leading to Julian. I figured that someone was bound to stop that could give me a ride. I tried sticking my thumb out: first with my dorky sun hat on to look non-threatening, and when that didn’t work I tried no hat + hair down so people would see I was a woman because, well, it helps in the hitching world. The cars just zoomed past.

Someone going the opposite direction pulled in to see the view. I approached and asked if he’d possibly be heading back toward Julian. He wasn’t but offered to give me a ride anyway. John was super nice with a shy dog named Gandalf, and we chatted about San Diego and conservation and writing. It was honestly the best hitch experience I could have hoped for.

I arrived at the gear shop an hour before they opened and set about making a plan. New shoes, different socks, more tape and antibiotic cream. Plus I needed to figure out where I could stay in a town where any remaining hotel rooms were going for $200/night. On the trail the day of the week doesn’t much matter, but in Julian it was decidedly Saturday.

The people at 2 Foot Adventures were incredibly helpful in getting me new shoes, and the trip into town yielded unexpected benefits: I ran into several folks I hadn’t seen since Lake Morena, as well as the woman I’d met at the hostel in San Diego!

After lunch I rode a shuttle – from the same gear store – to the Sunrise Trailhead. It had easy access to water and a camp spot 0.2 miles up the trail. I’d sacrificed 11 miles of trail to stay on the same timeline, but it was all worth it when I walked up to the water tank and there were Evan, Stevie, Lauren, Kelsey, and Freda! When I’d left my tent that morning, I had imagined staying in Julian for 2 days and never seeing them again.

My toes were feeling much better in the new shoes, and I camped with a group of new folks that were really fun: Valkyrie and Wheat (who’d met on the AT), Stine, and Chris. I had two shorter days ahead of me before I’d be back in Julian once again.

Day 6

The wind ripped one of my tent stakes from the ground around 11pm, and the flapping tent doors woke me up before the tent collapsed. I scrambled in the dark to haul more rocks to keep the stake in place, fighting all the while to keep the support pole upright against the howling wind. I lay awake for a while after and listened as my tent was battered all around me.

In the morning I took care to stretch and walk slowly to adjust to the new shoes. I met a few Vets that were hiking the trail as part of a VFW program. Soon after I was passed by a caravan of ten horses – at a steep exposed part of trail of course – along with five riders.

The trail wound up and down through the scrubby bushes, and shade was hard to come by. I reached the water source – a spigot by the side of a jeep road – before lunch and found Stine, Chris, Valkyrie, and Wheat crammed into the shade of a small bush. They made space for me to join, and I plopped down and did some more stretching. The trail had been rocky and quite steep in sections, and my feet were feeling tired.

Around 2pm I decided to get a few more miles in so that tomorrow would be an easy day to get to Julian. The next section featured crumbly trail with steep drop-offs and views down to the valley floor – and to Scissors Crossing, where I’d head tomorrow.

I found a nice spot to camp and was joined by an Australian named Keeran who at one point admitted he didn’t even like camping that much and was mostly out here to enjoy the town stops!

After dinner I watched the cloud bank rolling over the mountains to the west, as well as the first colorful sunset of the trip. And as I lay writing this, a hummingbird buzzed up to my tent, had a look around, and then zoomed off again.

The one thing I was looking forward to the most was a chance to shower and wash my clothes.

Day 7

When I woke up I was incredibly grateful that I did the extra miles the night before. The wind was howling, and I couldn’t imagine traversing the steep slopes while being pushed sideways. Instead I followed the gentle descent down toward Scissors Crossing, passing into arid desert. The San Felipes towered above the desert floor – my route for tomorrow. But first I needed to hitch into town. There were three guys already waiting, and before long a woman in a minivan pulled up and gave us all a ride.

I met up with my friends at the Julian Cafe and Bakery, and they passed all their breakfast leftovers my way. We spent most of the day doing town chores: resupplying food, washing our clothes in the sink, mailing home unneeded gear. But Julian also had some “trail magic”: free pie and ice cream at Mom’s for PCT hikers, free cider and snacks, $5 sandwiches from the grocery store for us too.

It was fun to catch up with everyone staying in town. There was severe weather forecasted for that night, so many people who’d been there the day before had extended their stay. I heard about one woman who I’d met on day 3 who had gone to the emergency room with an infected tick bite. I also ran into someone who had studied CS at UW a year ahead of me!

That evening Lauren, Kelsey, Freda and I went to Romano’s for dinner. But our clothes were in the process of being washed, so we followed the time-honored tradition of wearing nothing but our rain gear. Although I was lucky enough to find a free wool shirt in one of the hiker boxes around town. I put it back the next morning so that it could help some other future hiker in their laundry time of need.