Hikey Mike

Day 5 – 18 miles

After waiting out the storm the day before, everyone was keen to get back on trail early the next morning, however strong winds continued through most of the morning so I decided to get one last town meal in before leaving, it turns out biscuits and gravy with a side of french toast is enough to fuel a pretty long day of hiking and by 10am I had set off.

The rain had stopped but due to the low temperature and winds I started the day with all of my layers on and slowly stripped them off throughout the morning as by midday it was finally back to a pleasant temperature. The whole morning was spent walking down the mountain, dropping almost 2000ft with some great views of the desert below

The rest of the day was pretty smooth with the only standout being my first water filtering, I would have much preferred it to have been from a nice lake or river, but a bug filled tank would have to do

Day 6 – 16 miles

We woke up the next morning to high humidity and below freezing weather which meant an interesting start to the day of getting out of my ice covered sleeping bag into my frozen solid shoes.

I decided the best way to warm up would be to start hiking straight away so quickly packed up at 6am and set off with as many layers on as possible

The day quickly warmed up and with the town of Julian only 16 miles away I decided to power through and try to get there by the evening. A few of us camped at an RV trailer park just down the road, with access to showers and laundry and an easy hitch into Julian in the morning

Day 7 – Zero in Julian

As you’ve probably already noticed, the American thru hiking community has a language of their own, which the longer you’re surrounded by it, the more it becomes the norm.

A ‘zero’ is a day where you don’t walk any miles on the trail (similarly a ‘near-o’ is just walking a small amount, usually to get in or out of towns)

Zero’s are important for recovery, resupplying before the next section and generally to have some fun with the people you’ve been hiking with. Despite the earlier than anticipated zero in Mount Laguna a few days earlier, it would be over a week before there was another chance to stop in a larger town so I decided to take it slowly and take a zero in Julian, as did most of the people I was hiking with.

Julian is a town that was created during the Gold Rush as a base for the multiple gold mines setting up in the area, and is largely unchanged since with all the buildings on the high street kept to look like the 19th century. Despite only having a population of 1,500, the town is the first major stopping point on the PCT and so has many business catered to that crowd, including gear stores and a grocery store filled with dehydrated meals.

Despite the water mains having burst in the town a few days prior, some businesses were still open so I was able to fully prep for the next section and enjoy my time in the town with free pie for PCT hikers, a tour of the gold mine and karaoke night at the American Legion, a bar for veterans which also offers $10 lodging with camping beds in their patio for hikers. It’s fair to say a good night was had by all, even though I did get roped into a duet of Shallow from A Star Is Born