Mile 396 - 411

400 mile mark came & went.  I've been on trail now for 4.5 weeks.  Today was a lazy day.  I slept in til 615, made tea, ate breakfast in camp & didn't start hiking till 820.  The trail has been crisscrossing hwy 2 for awhile and the guidebook said there was a restaurant a mile and a half down the rd.  So for 8 miles this morning Easy Miles and I were should we or shouldn't we?  Finally we decided to go for it.  Not just for the hot meal but also for the experience of it.  If no one picked us up in 15 min we'd just keep hiking.  We got a ride after 10 min from a day hiker.  The food was delicious.  There's something about grilled Ortega Chiles that just makes a sandwich great.  We celebrated passing 400.  While finishing up, in walked Rian and Brian.  We've been leap frogging each other for awhile.  The trail can be funny this way.  Now the problem facing us was a ride back to the trail and it turned out to be quite an adventure.  First I yogi'd a ride from a gentleman with a 1957 Volkswagen Beetle.  It was a dead ringer for Herbie.  We got maybe a quarter of a mile up the hill when the engine quit.  We had to turn it around, push it a bit til it started rolling back downhill, then coast back to Newcoms Ranch.  By this time our hiker friends had finished eating and were also looking for a ride.  There was a couple getting ready to leave so I went over to see if they were heading our direction.  They weren't, but what nice people!  They're from Florida near Anna Maria Island where my family goes every year.  My parents live in Lakeland, FL.  After talking a bit and sharing my adventure with them, they said they could give us a ride. Yay.  So we loaded up and I hear a shout, 'Helicopter!' 'Blackhawk!'. Wouldn't you know it was some people from the campground last night who shared there campfire with us.  That was awesome.

We hiked another 8 miles after that.  There was a cache of fruit for PCT hikers.  We weren't hungry but we took some grapes and an apple for later.  It's hard to get fresh fruit.  Yummy.  So, kind of a lazy day, but after all of that uphill hiking the last two days, some of it quite steep, we needed a bit of a break.  Tomorrow were getting up super early to try and get big miles in.  There is more detours and poodle dog boogying ahead.

In case it doesn't show up well, the picture is the #400 made out of sticks.

A side note, I saw Brian and Rian later in camp.  They said the couple that gave us a ride, stopped and gave them one too.  So if you read this FL couple, Thank You for being our trail angels today!

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