Scissors Crossing

First of all, I forgot to mention that we had our first trail magic yesterday.  Walkie Talkie flew 7000 miles to give us and other hikers a soda at Pioneer Trail picnic area.  He was a PCT thru hiker last year and came back to share wisdom and cold drinks this year, as well as attend the PCT kickoff event. This was very nice.  Thank you very much.

Today was a bit more barren, although we got to see some beautiful blooms on cactus.  The wind too gave us a good show.  We were only able to use the umbrella for 30 minutes or so.  

The first 9 miles were relatively easy to Rodriquez Spring, then the next 8 miles to Scissors Crossing were a bit difficult.  While the trail eventually went down 1800 feet,it kept going up and in the wrong direction and this really played with our brains.

Yesterday, Buddy said it best, "the surveyor of this trail must have been drunk as that is the only explanation for why it meanders the way it does."

We hiked off and on with Stan from Anchorage and are camping with him tonight in the middle of a sticker patch.  We are sleeping without our air mattresses because we were pretty sure they wouldn't make it through the night.  Its been along time since we slept on the ground, so it might be a long night.  It doesn't help that we are right by a busy road too.  We had to camp here though because a storm is blowing in and it would be foolhardy to head up the trail with high wind warnings in effect. 

It will all work out, I'm sure, and we will get some sleep and be able to head out and up in the morning.