Day 27: Wed, May 23

(Stud) It was cool and windy this morning when we started out; it reminded us of a fall day with the wind blowing leaves from the trees. Around 8:30 we ran into Stamp Lady--she and Messanger Man were just breaking camp. He was staying behind for a while so the 3 of us hiked on together to the next ranger station-our next possible water stop. Stamp Lady is probably 50ish and is the Post Master of a one post-person town just a ferry's ride from Seatle, WA. We arrived at the Ranger Station around 11am and the caretaker there told us where to get water and gave us directions to Saufley's--a hiker hostel in Agua Dulce--our next resupply town. The Ranger Station has been closed for 8 years due to lack of federal funding and difficulty finding workers--according to the caretker who lives there for free and gets a small stipend to watch over the place. We left the Ranger station at the hottest part of the day as we headed back into desert-man was it hot! We took some relief !
under a large bush for a while, then toughed it out to get down to a highway where there was supposed to be a restaurant at an RV park. The RV park was pretty sad--it had definitely seen it's better days. The restaurant was no longer in operation there because the couple running it "up and left". A young guy that seemed to be the manager told us "the lady sitting next to the red truck will call a local piza place that will deliver out here if you want". We asked if there was a Coke machine and he told us it was broken, but that he had 2 Pepsi's in his frig if we wnated them. I thought that was pretty nice.

We found the lady next to the red pick up-where she was sitting around a barrel of burning trash with her significant other...seriously. And it had to be in at least the high 90's. But she nicely called the pizza shop for us--and 1/2 hr later they arrived with a pizza and two 32 oz cokes. Stamp Lady, who'd been behind us on this leg, arrived just before our pizza did--so she joined us for a few slices.

It was much cooler when we resumed hiking, and we ran into Stamp Lady's husband down the trail a bit. They decided to stop for the night, and we hiked on toward Agua Dulce--stopping around 9:00 or so. We came through a canyon after dark and saw several of the Arroyo frogs they're trying to protect. We also saw a lot of horse poop--so we labeled this our "Toads and Turds" section.

We are cowboy camped in a large open area near an interstate and not far from a sign the says "You're in Cougar County"...and it's not referring to a school mascot. Hopefully we're not camped in a commuter parking lot!