At 1:30-2:00 pm the rain woke me up, gusting wind bursting through the tent I checked all tent corners, satisfied everything was ok, I went back to sleep. Later I heard Peggy get out, her tent corner had collapsed and she was repositioning her tent stakes. Not too much later I had the same issue, not enough soil and too much sand, we couldn't get the stakes to hold firmly. Then rain began to blow in, not too bad but just enough to keep me from sleeping. Things were getting damp. After a couple of forays into the rain to set my tent up again, my clothes were wet. Finally Peggy and I decided to grab our stuff, take down the tents (timing it so they didn't blow away) and make a dash for the car where we stuffed wet things into the trunk and ourselves into the car. Wrapping our sleeping bags around us we reclined the seats and fell asleep.
About 7:30am I awoke and thought I was in a cloud, water dripping from the foggy windows! We dashed outside to make sure we hadn't left anything, we were planning in getting out of there quick.
But Noooo, that would have been too easy! The car locked itself behind us with all that we owned inside. No amount of ranting would open it up, meanwhile the wind blown rain was coming down and we were very sad, miserable girls.
Two hours and two borrowed phones later, a tow truck arrived. Five places to initial, one signature and a wave goodbye we drove off, our goal: breakfast, recharging my iPhone and the nearest REI to buy me a new tent!
Encinitas, California was our destination and my iPhone got us there. REI had 1 tent and I set it up before buying it. We dried our wet tents in the parking lot by a UPS store where I mailed it home to Robin.
Peggy had been talking about her family who she thought lived nearby, we were not on a tight schedule ( the car couldn't be turned in until Monday anyway) so we thought it would be fun if she could at least touch base with her cousins.
Two calls later we were driving into the driveway of her cousin John & his wife, Lorene's lovely home just 3 miles away! We thought we were stopping just to say hello, but in reality we were walking into solace. The first things that I noticed were giant richly hued succulents and an unusual pine tree shading the front drive. The textures and colors were welcoming!
Dinner included Peggy's Aunt Sally & a friend of the family, Denise, who coached me in yoga we could do on the trail to keep us limber. We enjoyed great conversation and an offer to overnight in their home. We couldn't have imagined a more welcoming change from the rain soaked night before!
The next morning we had breakfast and walked down to an overlook to watch surfers catch waves as brown pelicans soared overhead.
These two girls are a
loooong way from the Pacific Crest Trail!
We arrived back in Hemet, Ca Sunday afternoon we will call Dave and meet him here tomorrow morning for the ride back to Idyllwild and back to the trail. This has been a trip of extremes, almost surreal at times and the trail north is calling.
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