The adventures the of the golden child bha bha bhaaaaa:
Agua Dulce wzas an amazing stop and Mrs. Saufley did a terrific job arranging cots, tents, laundry, and showers. The weather was misty and the 12 miles of slack packing through the vasquez rocks was unbelievably inspiring. I was able to traverse the area before 11am.  I had originally planned to journal when I got to theVasquez Rocks but I ended up continuing on to the mexican restaurant... amazing burrito. 

Casa de Luna is usually describled as the complete opposite of hiker heaven(The Saufleys) they are more  wild and are the party type. I had 8 beers and with the help of Mango and Slimjim we fixed a futon. I had asked Joe if there was anything we could do before the hiker herd comes through... he had this broken futon. I'm three beers in taking a look at it. I managed to find an L bracket and some of the original screws... after lots of digging around. I let Mango handle the power tools. You know me... three beers in... it's just not a good idea.(even though sometimes those are the best ideas.)

I camped in the "Magical Manzanta Forest" in the backyard but unfortunately I was sick that night. I woke up after midnight searching for my clothes and managed to get half of them on backward and inside out... I made it out my tent and threw up. I know you think it was the beer but I think it was the greasy food. I stopped drinking around 7pm and had lots of water before dinner. I left the Andersons with an empty stomach. I put in 16 miles on small gas station cookies. I barely hit 1200 calories at the end of the day.

I ended up camping at a small camp "Upper Shakes Campground" located .6 miles off the trail. The campsites were nonexistant.  I spent almost 2 hours hunting for a good site.  I ended up cowboy camping on mulch.  Gross.  So after the horrible experience I have a new rule... I will only go .5 miles from the trail for a campground if it is verbally recommended by someone on the trail.  Otherwise it's whatever I find in the dark...either on the trail...or nearby.  The .6 miles back up to the trail was rough, completely up-hill, and way overgrown.  There were bushes fighting me and they were a foot over my head!

I hiked 24.6 miles total yesterday and made it in to Hiker Town.  It's this strange oasis of small old town look alike buildings.  I shared a room with Mike(Olay) and Slimjim.  Tarzan and Zelda, two of my favourites are here!! I'm so excited to have caught up to them and I can't wait to be able to hike with them.  Mango would like to do the Sierras with them... I feel bad though that I'm undecided about the Sierras.  Slimjim has a good point though... you don't know until you try... and if you feel unsafe or don't like it you can just come down and leap frog up if you want to.  So I think that means... maybe I need to get the ice axe sent to me and maybe some micro-spikes.   ... I guess I have all weekend to think about it though.  Huff.  I had originally thought oh yeah... no leapfrogging... and then the idea really appealed to me.  I'd see the OR and WA wildflowers and hike throughthe Sierras in their prime. I enjoy hiking alone so leapfrogging by myself would be okay with me.  I think Slimjim and Mango are dead set on the Sierras.  It maybe time to fly my own kite again.

I miss everyone and I absolutely love the letters everyone sends.  I keep them with me and reread them about 5 times over the course of the week.  Please feel free to send more and if you don't know what to write about... just write to me about your life.  ... If we were getting coffee that's what we would be talking about!  Post cards will be sent out from Tehachipi so start looking at the end of next week.  I'm excited to get there because there is a Denny's right next to the Post Office!!

Take care and get in trouble people!!