Day 28: Oasis of Serenity in Agua Dulce

Miles traveled: zero

Mile marker: 454.7

The showers don’t open until 6:30 a.m. It’s not even 6:00 yet, so I roll around on my half-deflated air mattress until I decide I can’t be a roast chicken anymore. My portable charger needs charging anyway, so I’ll just work on my blogs while I wait for the showers to open.

Looks like I’m not the first to wake up. The gutelele—which is a little guitar—that the other day was smoking a cigarette in the middle of the road is waiting for the showers. He’s a soft-spoken British boy from Canterbury and he’s currently pacing back and forth next to the closet-sized shower.

«It looks like they turned off the controls,» he says.

«They don’t open until 6:30,» I say.

We chat a little while we wait for 6:30 to arrive. I was hoping to work on my blog, but it seems the shower line is starting earlier than I thought.

Little brown bunnies hop down the dusty slope behind the showers.

I wish I had showered last night. My hands are still dirty and I couldn’t remove the black part with my thumbs, my toes are dirty and I couldn’t remove the dirt around the scab on the back of my ankle.

When it’s almost 6:30, Lucie, Rafiki, Savannah, and Bumper are lined up behind me.

Lots of smelly people.

I’m about to have a coffee from the store’s coffee maker. Farmer John places an order at Walmart every day and sells the items. By the way, this is free coffee. The shower door opens and I rush inside.

The water handle looks like the same one you would use to turn on a hose. Wow, this is hot! Very hot!

I spend five minutes trying to adjust the water temperature. It feels good to wash off all the dirt, salt, and sunscreen. I use my handkerchief instead of a washcloth since there are none available. When I wash my feet, the brown water swirls on the floor.

Wow. I’m very dirty.

It also takes a while. Removing this dirt is no joke. I also learned that scarves are quite soft. Wipes have much more abrasion.

I go out, all clean and smelling like men’s soap, and have a coffee in a paper cup. I load it with powdered milk and sugar.

We do laundry, which involves rinsing my socks with a hose behind the shower, and wait for it to finish in the machines.

Dad sits in a chair next to his tent. I sit with him on the lounge chair by the pool and he offers me his sleeping bag. It’s a little cloudy, so the morning will be cold. I’m wearing clothes borrowed from the laundry room.

Bumper and I headed to the local coffee shop. At this point I’m starving because I didn’t have breakfast. I order a chicken and avocado sandwich and an extra sweet caramel macchiato. My sandwich was tasteless and the macchiato was not sweet except for the caramel drizzle. Oh ok.

California once again fails to meet culinary expectations.

We spent the next few hours blogging and vlogging. Our hiking friends join us, including Truls! I pay you for the box you sent us. Will continue walking today!

We were going to go to the burger place for dinner, but they close at 3:00. Dad meets me there for lunch. Like the hiker burger, which is pretty good! We also get a 20% discount. I told Rafiki to go ahead and have lunch, so he’s a little sad that he missed the chance to eat burgers.

I guess we should have looked at the hours.

Let’s resupply at the market. There aren’t many good options, but at least Farmer John’s has more items than the market.

We returned to Serenity Oasis, the “hikers only” campground, and packed our food bags after a quick shop at their small market. Plus, Lucie gives me two melted snickers bars! Score! Although I’m not sure how edible it will be when I get to it.

My bag of food weighs a grueling 13 pounds.

The goal is two pounds a day. I have lost three pounds. Damn honey buns.

Rafiki and Savannah leave with foot baths.

It’s not a bad idea.

I send my mom a detailed text about a box I need for when I get to Kennedy Meadows. I need a box for the walk from there to Bishop. It’s a six-day transport and I’ll need my waterproof pants. Hopefully the mosquitoes won’t be bad, but every PCT hiker runs into mosquitoes at some point.

When Rafiki and Savannah finish their time at the spa, I take their foot baths and wrap the liner around them. I fill it with hot water and fill it with Epsom salts packaged in ziplock bags.

Lucie joins me. It’s so hot to the touch that my foot is burning! I wait a moment and then immerse both feet. Oh, this is hot!

Not even ten minutes later and the water is warm.

Unfortunately, I missed a text from Rafiki asking me to buy hot dogs. Then we go to a Mexican restaurant where I have the worst nachos of my life. Two other hikers said they were fine! Lucie, Savannah and I had the nachos! There was some kind of green sauce underneath. What a bad purchase. Rafiki is on his third quesadilla since we arrived in Agua Dulce. We’ll see how that feels to your stomach.

Lucie, Dad, Savannah and I are deep in conversation. We talk about how lucky we are to be on the road. We talk about how we want to understand life a little. How we regret certain choices in life. How the generations have changed from our grandparents to us.

I grab a Snickers ice cream bar from the store (which means Rafiki bought it for me since I bought his toothpaste earlier) and head back to camp.

Finally, I clean the back of my shoe with alcohol and put some tenacious duct tape on it. The tape on my left foot doesn’t stick as well, so I tape it on with a little New Skin.

I take a hot shower, as it is included in my stay, and use Rafiki lotion for my face. The hot water absorbed all the moisture from my skin.

Rafiki and I sit and chat while the rest of the group laughs along with a new addition to the group, Socks, surrounding Rafiki’s ‘domicile’, as he calls it.

«You forgot a stake,» someone tells Rafiki.

«I know, I can’t get it out of the ground,» Rafiki says. The terrain is very, very hard. Yesterday he ruined some of his bets by trying to stick them in the hard sand.

Savannah walks over to the stake, finds the rope next to it, and wraps it around the stake. She pulls. It slides off the floor like a hot knife through butter.

Everyone dies laughing. That took Savannah two seconds when Rafiki couldn’t get it out no matter how hard he tried!

I go into my store. My stuff is exploded everywhere, but I’m too tired to try to organize it. We have another long day tomorrow! At least, like every good day, it will start with a hot cup of coffee.

See you tomorrow friends! Deep sleep!