This post originally appeared on The Trek, which you can read here.

*these posts are coming straight from trail, I apologize in advance for typos!*

Day 7: April 14, 2025 

Location: The Desert
Start: Tentsite – 73.1
End: Stagecoach RV Park – 77.3
Miles: 4.2
Ascent: 125 | Descent: 933
Sleep: Tent

We woke up early to a beautiful sunrise. Comments on FarOut said this site was notorious for hearing mountain lions… thankfully (?) we didn’t hear anything. We expected the wind to be really bad but it died down in the early morning hours and I slept great. I had a hard time waking up but once we got moving I felt good.

We were eager to get into Julian so we hiked hard. The trail this morning was mostly downhill so the hiking was easy. It’s pretty wild how high up we were in comparison to where we’re going- we will descend completely to the desert floor and walk from one mountain range to the other.

Once we got to Scissors Crossings we ran into Danny who had stayed at Stagecoach the night before. He gave us the rundown and bid us farewell. Truffles and I decided to wait for Gooey while Pimento, Mikenlee, and Hangman walked to the road to hitch. They got a ride pretty quickly from a trail angle named Ghost.

Truffles and I waited for Gooey at the underpass in a couple of lawn chairs. We talked to hikers as they came up from trail, some of them got hitches and others waited for the shuttle into Julian. Once Gooey arrived we walked to the road, unrolled our “hikers to town” sign, and got a ride almost instantly.

Spyro drove us over the curvey mountain road into the sweet little town of Julian. When we arrived we linked back up with our group and made a beeline for Mom’s Pies. What an adorable little spot! I knew they gave free slices of pie to PCT hikers, but it turns out we got pie, ice cream, AND a drink for free!!

I got the strawberry and rhubarb pie with cinnamon ice cream and a lemonade, it was all delicious. The real excitement, though, was the 5.2 magnitude earthquake that happened in Julian! I thought it was just a big truck or a train, but when stuff started falling off the walls we all got worried. It was short lived but scary, we all just sat in shock and didn’t realize what had happened until all our phones started alerting that there had been an earthquake.

Once we got over the initial surprise we finished our pie and decided to go over to the outfitter to check it out. I was so impressed with the inventory that 2 Foot Adventures squeezed into such a small space! They had everything that a hiker would need. We scoped it out and made plans to do a partial resupply there, at the local grocery store, and at the liquor store (which was basically like a gas station).

A highlight of the resupply adventure was meeting some locals with their senior dog, Millie. She was an old pug being pushed around in a hot pink stroller and her owners were so excited to show her off they let Truffles and I hold her. She was precious!

Another highlight was being interviewed about the earthquake. Since the epicenter was outside of Julian, San Diego news crews flocked to town to cover the story. There were multiple news crews set up around town and as we were walking by one, they asked if anyone would like to comment on gave a brief interview about my hike and earthquake experience.

With our chores complete we arranged a shuttle to our accommodations for the night with 2 Foot Adventures before heading to the Julian Beer company for drinks and food. The food was phenomenal and the beer was delightful. We hung out there for several hours charging our electronics and chilling before it was time for our shuttle.

We stayed at Stagecoach RV park and initially I was disappointed we weren’t sleeping in a bed, but Stagecoach had everything we need. We had access to unlimited showers (!!!!) and laundry was only $5 a load.

We got dropped off by Professor and pitched our tents in the hikers area. We will use all the amenities tomorrow, our plan is to leave in the afternoon to do some night hiking. What a wonderful town day!

Day 8: April 15, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Stagecoach RV Park – 77.3
End: Water Cistern – 91.2
Miles: 13.9
Ascent: 2204 | Descent: 910
Sleep: Tent

Today was basically two in one… it was kind of like a zero but then also our biggest mile day on trail thus far. We started the day at Stagecoach, it was so nice to sleep in! We laid low until the camp store opened at 9am. I was pleasantly surprised by the selection and the food menu! Hikers get either a free ice cream, coffee, or water at the store.

We got quarters for laundry and decided to start on our chores. Some of us did laundry, some of us took showers, and some of us went to the pool. The pool was freezing but felt good in the heat. Mikenlee, Gooey, and I sat around the pool for an hour or so soaking it up.

Truffles and I got lunch from the store and it was delicious! I had a turkey pesto sandwich and Truffles got a hot dog, we split a 2L of Dr. Pepper. After lunch we took another round of showers (this time I got to use shampoo and my hair was much happier).

We slowly started gathering our stuff to wait for our 4:30pm shuttle. Fossil Lady and Professor picked us up and took us back to Scissors Crossing. We all hung out under the underpass in the shade to wait for it to cool down more. We reconnected with Neve who we met in the first day, Mock, and Marcel.

Our plan was to cover the 14 waterless miles out of Julian while night hiking. We left the underpass at Scissors Crossing around 6pm and up we went. There was a steady 3 mile climb that we were dreading because of how exposed it was. Thankfully doing it in the evening wasn’t bad, and it was gentle and didn’t leave us gasping for breath.

Neve hiked out with us and our conga line conquered the mountain together. Our goal was the get the climb over with before dark, and we were successful. We pulled out our headlamps around 8pm as the last dregs of sunlight stretched across the sky.

We were excited for the moon to come out. The full moon was several days ago, but we knew it would still be bright enough to see by. It took hours for the moon to rise, so much so that we all began to joke that the moon and the moon landing were all just made up. When the moon finally made an appearance it was a bright orange color as it crested the ridge, and slowly faded to its typical off white as it rose in the sky.

Our group was very chatty until the last couple of hours. Neve is from Scotland so we talked to her about her life and country and Truffles told her countless stories about the AT and guiding. 14 miles is our biggest day on trail yet, and doing it at night was an interesting choice. The last 3ish miles felt like they would never end.

We finally rolled up to the water cache and campsite just before midnight. We were so tired we couldn’t be bothered to set up the tent, so this was my first night cowboy camping as well. Since we got there so late all the good campsites were taken, so we just slept right next to the trail in as flat of spot as we could find. What an eventful and exhausting day!

Day 9: April 16, 2025

Location: The Desert
Start: Water Cistern – 91.2
End: San Ysidro Creek – 105.0
Miles: 13.8
Ascent: 1370 | Descent: 1563
Sleep: Tent

Such a great day on trail! We were beat after our night hiking shenanigans yesterday, so we slept in until around 6am and started stirring as the sun rose. Turns out there were tons of campsites and lots of people camped out in the same area, we just couldn’t see them in the dark.

I didn’t sleep as well and I thought I would, I was exhausted from the night hike but my brain wouldn’t turn off and I don’t think I actually got much sleep. It was also very windy last night, I didn’t realize how much a tent protected you from the wind. Overall my first cowboy camping experience was fine, I will probably do it again.

The water situation at camp was kind of strange- it was a water cache with several jugs close by to the trail. The actual water cache, though, was about a 5 minute walk off trail to a dirt road with a pallet of water bottles that trail angels had obviously driven in. I went on a quest for water thinking there would be a cattle trough. Imagine my surprise when I had to haul several gallon jugs back to the trail instead.

Our whole group was moving slow this morning and we didn’t actually start hiking until 8am. It was overcast and windy so I hiked fast to stay warm. I set out before the rest of the group and I’m glad I did because I was flying! I hiked hard to stay warm and ended up passing several people. I met a new guy named Corby and we chatted for a bit while I waited for the rest of my tramily to show up.

We all hiked past the small cave just off the trail together, and then Truffles caught up with me to hike the rest of the morning together. We hit the 100 mile mark today! I remember that being such a big deal on the AT. I recognize the that this is a huge milestone, but I think now I have the perspective to understand all that lies ahead of us. 100 miles is incredible, now we just have to do it 25 more times.

Barrel Spring was a lovely respite, especially after a fast 10 miles. Truffles and I arrived at 11:30am and set up in the shade. This turned out to be a mistake because the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. We were freezing before long and there was no sunshine to be found in the trees. As the rest of our group rolled in everyone got out their sleeping bags and bunkered down for a long siesta. I put on every layer of clothing I had and snuggled under my liner and Tyvek. I don’t usually like to take naps, but I slept for maybe 30 minutes or an hour.

We all slowly started waking up and eventually were hiking again around 4pm. The trail traveled through open pastures and felt very different from other sections thus far. We made quick work of the remaining 4ish miles and caught up with Neve at a lovely campsite by a creek. We all set up on the creek bank and had dinner together before retiring to our tents. Heroing in and out of Warner Springs tomorrow to pick up our resupply box at the Post Office!