Day 6 - Post Office here we come! — Walking People Out of Poverty

Day 6

Depart Mike 93.2

Arrive Warner Springs

Today we had to be up early and on the trail in order to get to Warner Springs by 12:30 PM. The reason being it was Saturday and the post office closes at 1:30 PM and we have to pick up a food parcel. If we were late it would’ve meant we would have to stay In Warner Springs until Monday which would have wrecked our schedule. The reason we scheduled 1230 was to allow some buffer time to ensure we would not be late.

In Warner Springs until Monday which would have wrecked our schedule. The reason we schedule 1230 was to allow some buffer time to ensure we would not be late.

We broke camp and we’re on our way by 5:15 AM. These early starts accomplish the goal of beating the heat and we can often knock off seven or 8 miles before it gets really hot.

The walking was a very pleasant as we dropped gradually lower and lower down the mountainside. We then encounted a long flat stretch across open country which ran for several miles which meant there was no shade. this trail eventually led us to Eagle Rock which is a formation of rocks that resemble the American eagle as it is attempting to take off. Eagle Rock is a popular tourist attraction for the locals and we met a number of them heading up the trail as we were heading down, including a scout group who were heading out for a weekend of camping.

It was at this point that we met a couple of PCT hikers, Anna and Slim, who you will learn more about later.

Anna and slim manage to get ahead of us but we met them again lower down the trail as they decided to stop and soak their shirts in order to cool down.

We finally arrived into Warner Springs at 11:30am And had to register at the community center. The volunteers at the community centre where extremely helpful and the services they provide are free, although they do rely on donations.

As we still had a couple of hours before the post office closed we decided it would make sense to pitch out tents and thereby preserve our spot at the campsite.

We had a lot of work ahead of us and after pitching our tents and storing our packs we set off for the post office. We were told the post office was about a mile up the road but were warned not to walk the road as three people had already been killed this year and were pointed to an alternate route,

After picking up our parcel from the post office we decided to drop in to the golf course for lunch. On our way we bumped into Anna and invited her to join us. As Anna was meeting up with a long time friend who she hadn’t seen in 10 years she declined lunch but accepted the offer of a drink.

This gave Tina and I the opportunity to find out more about Anna and for Anna to learn more about Tina and I.

The calories that one burns when hiking the PCT is incredible and your body starts craving for food. It was at this point that I ordered a cheeseburger with fries something I would never do when back in Calgary. This burger and fries was so tasty it went down way too easy and I guess Anna had food envy because she ordered the same later.

it was at this point that Anna’s friend Anne Marie arrived and we had a nice chat before returning back to the Community Center. The bonus being that Anne Marie dropped us off which was very kind of her.

Upon our return to the community center we set about cleaning ourselves up. They’re all bucket shower facilities with two cubicles and a number of large orange buckets and soaps shampoos etc. Tina went first and after a few minutes reappeared looking disgustingly clean. Tina then set about doing her laundry which had to be washed by hand. By now the weather was very warm and it would not take long for laundry to dry. It was my turn now to take the shower and I grabbed not one but two buckets of warm water and set about cleaning myself. It was a lot of fun and a lot of sloshing of water which was most enjoyable.

By now it was mid afternoon and Tina and I set about making up our food packages for the days ahead.

As we have had a rather large lunch we decided we were not hungry to do anything fancy for dinner. It was shortly after six that Anna and Anne Marie reappeared and as Anne Marie was a bit of a medical specialist I asked if she would mind taking a look at my feet which were badly blistered. After a few minutes I was told that Tina had done good job on my feet and that I should change my socks at lunch time.

It was at this point that we also met up with Slim and it was decided that Tina and I would walk with Anna and Slim the next morning. We decided that we would be up early and hopefully on the trail by 6 AM after having breakfast in the community hall which was a separate room to the community center and made plans to meet there.