So, during the night with the howling wind saying that I woke up in the morning would really be a stretch. Basically I just kept opening my eyes and when it looked like it was getting lighter I figured it was morning. I am use to looking at my phone to see the time but my phone was not working. I realized finally that the InReach also had the time and so I looked at it and it was about 5:00 in the morning. I had to have a long talk with myself to get up. I realized by now that everything was wet. My gloves were drenched and cold. My shoes where drenched and cold. I had no idea what the weather was suppose to be like or how far I had to go to get to anywhere!!! For awhile, I thought, I am just going to stay in this sleeping bag which was warm and wait for something good to happen. Perhaps the sun would come out. The tent was covered with snow and when I peaked out it only looked cold and foggy. I will have to admit that a few words came out of my mouth that I am not all the proud off. I am in Southern California!!! It is May 15th!!! Why am I dealing with this %@%!$%^@^@^&^&!& snow and cold!! I think about 7, I figured I might as well pack up and get going. So I put my rain gear over my thermal underwear because at least that was dry. Stuffed every other thing that was wet into my backpack and started walking. About about 15 minutes I met the guy that I was following just the day before. His name was “Shutter Bug” cause he likes to take pictures (duh). Turns out he works in the film industry and is an assistant director. Really nice guy. His phone worked!! He told me that the weather was supposed to clear by 2 pm. So most of the day we were walking IN the clouds and the mist was just getting us wetter. He had the same situation that I did. The wind had uprooted the stakes of his rainfly and everything he had was soaked. He had called his girlfriend and asked her to pick him up at the KOA. KOA??? I asked. Yes, he said, there is a KOA about 13 miles ahead. About 4 or 5 hours later I was really questioning the whole 2 pm thing. I figured it was never going to stop. I was going to be wet, cold and miserable for the rest of my life. I really was at a low point of the trail to this point. When this happened before Bear Lake I accepted it much better. This somehow just seemed much worse but mainly because everything was wet and I was not sure how I was going to get it dry since it was going to rain or snow for the rest of my life. Anyway, I texted Lenora from the InReach and told her to pick me up. Originally I meant to make sure she would pick me up at Agua Dulce which is where I was suppose to be on Saturday anyway. But later, decided that she should just pick me up at the KOA which is 10 miles short of Agua Dulce. Again, at this point, I had no interest in those 10 miles. Shutter Bug and I stayed pretty close all day only because he had a bad knee. Remember I mentioned I could tell by his steps that something was wrong. With his bad knee and me in perfect condition, we pretty much walked at the same speed :). KOA was about a half mile from the PCT and when we got to the road his girlfriend was waiting and they gave me ride up to the KOA. I was never so happy to be given a ride for .5 miles!!! Arrived at the KOA at about 6 pm and about an hour earlier the sun had actually made an appearance. I was able to put out my tent and rainfly and get both of them dry before the sunset. So I was able to sleep in a dry tent that night. KOA also had a laundry where I could have done clothes that night except they did not have any quarters to give me. Had they really wanted to, there were plenty of quarters that could have found to give me from various machine they have, including the washing machine itself. BUT, it was the end of their day, they were tired, and I can understand they had a life also. But a dry tent and my thermal underwear was still dry and Lenora was going to pick me up tomorrow so all was good. For some reason (two Alieve actually) I slept great that night. It was actually the first time in the tent sleeping that I slept through the night and did not wake up till day break.

Lenora’s Note: I made it home Thursday with only minor irritations of traffic, got nails and toes ‘updated’ and spent the late afternoon and evening helping at photo sessions at St. Tim’s. Home finally about 8:30 pm I started thinking again about that lonely figure heading up the mountain trail and out of sight. All of a sudden I realized the day of the week. In about 4 hours I could go to Adoration and I decided to take my worries to my Lord. I slept well for about 4 hours and the hour of Adoration went by in a flash. Back home for a little nap and by morning I was working on Directory business and stitching a little before my shift at the photo shoot. The note “Hotel in Agua Dulce?” got me working on finding Don a dry place to stay, with little luck. The next note “What are your plans?” made me really wonder. I knew it rained and had no idea of what had happened on the mountain so thinking Don was hinting I might as well stay home while he hiked through the weekend I started to prepare to do that. Meanwhile I have a nice morning. Time with the cats, stitching, starting laundry and then off to work at church where I get the note: “I need you to get me in agua dulce” I ask “Now?” but no answer. A little later I ask “Should I leave now?’ and later still I get: “Sat afternoon is ok” So having promised to work the first shift the next morning at the church and hearing that the KOA is our meeting place for the next day I went to bed late after watching hours of recorded tv shows.