Day 5: Cruising with Fitty

It's funny how waking up late means something totally different when you are hiking. I usually try to get up at 4:30 or 5:00 am to get in as many miles as I can before the sunsets. Setting up camp in the dark sucks and It is nice to have some afternoon time to wind down the the day. The trade off is waking up very early. 

Today I didn't get up until 6:30am and half the hikers were already gone from camp. Fortunately a guy was getting ready to leave the same time I was and we took off together. The guy's name is Fitty(because he just turned 50) and he is a total stud. Last year he mountain bike raced the Continental Divide Trail! I did not even know that was possible or legal. Turns out it's sorta both. In his spare time he does adventure sports that I have never heard of: something with a 20ft kayak, a machete, and open ocean. Haha, anyway the dude is a tank and a great person to try to keep pace with. He has the same goal as me to do about 30 miles a day and to adapt around the weather to keep the trail from becoming too brutal; It is going to get rediculously hot in the next couple days with with the Santa Anna winds kicking up.  

Trail Magic: Silly name for good things that happen on the trail. Trail magic can vary from finding a quick hitch to getting free pie in town. Very similiar to trail angels but trail magic is much more random. 

The trail magic is already stacking up for this kid. 1) Fitty decided to pay for our hotel room in Julian after I told him about my cash flow situation. 2) We got a hitch into town pretty quick from a wonderful woman and her dog. 3) We got a free sandwich and pie in town just for being thru-hikers! 

We spent the night in the town of Julian about 12 miles off the trail at Scissors Crossing. The hotel was great and I got to rinse a few pounds of dirt from body/clothes and eat some hot food. All is well in the high desert.