Casa de Luna to Sawmill Campground (mile 498), 19 miles

Another morning of delicious pancakes and coffee made by Joe then I braved the cool shower… Not the best decision on an overcast and cold morning!

 

Terrie was shuttling hikers back to the trail and around 9:30am, Cuban B, Tent fire, PT, Rowan, Bush tit, Tom tit and I all squeezed into her wagon.

We were now on the Powerhouse Fire detour (the PCT is closed from 478 to 493) which makes you walk along a road for 12 miles before being able to access the PCT again through the Shaky campground at mile 493.

We had been told about the Red Rock Inn restaurant which we would pass after 8 miles of road walking and they apparently had great burgers. Food is the only real motivation a hiker needs to walk anywhere!

We arrived at the Red Rock Inn just before midday and it was taken over by hikers eating burgers! Cashmere, Physio, the Tits, Tentfire, Limey, Deluxe, Zog, Rattles, Nomad, Bucket, Fancypants, Rally, Squatchie, PT, Cuban B, Rowan… To name a few.

It was an awesome restaurant with delicious burgers and we all wished it was terrible weather outside so we’d have an excuse to stay a night in their Inn!

Back on the road for another 5 miles, it wasn’t a very pleasant walk but then came the turn off for the trail to the Shaky campground and our chance to get back onto the PCT at mile 193.

 

I had left the restaurant with 4 litres of water but started to think that this might not be enough when I realised I had drunk a litre of it just along the 5 mile road stretch. There was supposed to be a tank near the campground where we were going to stay the night (in another 5 miles) but we had heard reports from hikers ahead of us that they couldn’t find the tank…

We arrived at the Sawmill Campground and it was quickly getting cold, it was at 5,000 feet. There was so much broken glass that it took us all about 10 minutes of searching the entire campground to find a glass-free spot to pitch our tents. I set up my tent then went in search for the elusive water tank but came back an hour later with no luck. The directions were terrible!

I decided to conserve the 3 litres of water that I had left and not use it to cook dinner so instead I had pretzels, almonds, a fruit stuck, dried mango, dehydrated apple and a couple of granola bars for dinner 🙂

There is rain forecast for tomorrow and another storm heading our way.