Woke up and packed stuff up pretty quick. Spoonman and a few other folks were up already. I had realized when I was packing up that my camera battery was still in its charger in the common area, plugged into an extension cord near where everyone set their beers.

The charger was still there but apparently someone who had too much to drink put the battery in backwards so it could not charge. I wonder who that could have been.

Had coffee and a couple pancakes. Said goodbye to Joe, I wish I could have had more time to talk to him. He is a set designer on the TV Show "Bones" for 10 months out of the year, so I know I could have asked a lot of questions.

I said goodbye to people and got into the van with a few other hikers, including UB and Muk Muk.

Had a really fast 7.75 mile walk/climb/drop to the other cache that the Anderson's maintain. During the walk I listened to a couple Sugar albums and that helped me maintain my speed. Can't listen to slower songs when I am going uphill.

I ate a few snacks and as I was standing there I saw something in the distance that made me do a triple take. Muk Muk was lying down on her sleeping pad writing something on her phone.

"Muk Muk? Would you maybe like to see a young tanned and muscular shirtless man riding a white horse?", I said.

Muk Muk looked at me and as she started to say "yeah", I made a sweeping presentation motion with my hand and almost right on cue, a guy who was probably 16-20, looking like an Abercrombie & Fitch male model came around the corner riding a white horse.

There were about six of us there and we were all dumbfounded. I swore we were being pranked by some reality TV show. I am comfortable with my sexual preferences and all that jazz, but I could not stop looking at him. He looked just like those airbrushed photos you see on romance novels, complete with that haircut that looks messed up but would probably cost you about $500 for one.

I said hello and the guy got off the horse. His name was Chad and he was teaching the horse to ride. Her name was Bonnie and she was a little nervous but let me pet her. Chad was really friendly and said that his family owned about 70 acres in the area and he was getting her used to different environments. Chad asked me about the trail and everything. It seems like a lot of the locals know about the PCT and that it goes from Mexico to Canada and that is about it. Questions like how long does it take and how do you resupply yourself come up a lot.

I would have taken a Human Clock photo with Chad but didn't want to spook Bonnie with the cardboard...so I didn't ask. Kind of which I would have been able to, just so I could post the photo on Facebook and get about 64,000 likes on it.

Chad and Bonnie headed off and I said goodbye.

I had cell service there so I ordered my microspikes and ice axe to be shipped to Kennedy Meadows. I don't know if I will need them due to the amount of snow (50% of normal), but remember there being a few spots on the trail that had ice chutes and I didn't like the idea of going over them without some sort of anchor.

I ended up spending 2.5 hours there, since a couple trail angels showed up with beer/soda and chips.

It was about a 2800 foot climb out of the valley. I ran into Muk Muk and later UB. We got to the "guzzler" which is basically a concrete pad that funnels water into a little concrete tank when it rains. The guzzler was off the trail a bit so we walked too far the first time and ended up at a road turnout that was littered in 20 gauge shotgun shell casings (along with .308 and .45 brass). I picked a bunch up to make a clock photo with and later used them to make an arrow in the road so hikers would turn at the right spot. "Functional litter"

My phone was dead by that point but I knew we had gone only about 14-15 miles. We all decided to camp there anyways. Another hiker named Gavin also joined up with us there. UB joked that it was the vortex of the Anderson's keeping us from going farther.

The Jeffery Pinecones make great solar panel supports:

I made dinner with my jetboil stove, holy cow does that thing boil water fast! After using it I realized what that plastic piece I sent home was actually for (so you can set the pot down after you disconnect it from the gas). Going to have to have that put back into my next resupply.

Lullabye and the two Swedes showed up. They saw Gavin's tent and said "ohh, Swedish tent, we are home!"

The wind is blowing pretty good now in the trees and I can hear Lullabye playing his flute off in the distance, nice way to end the day. I could really get behind this 14 miles per day business but I know I won't make it to Canada before the snow comes if I do.