I woke once last night and the moon was bright. This morning hiking in the cool day feels so nice. This is still a road walk but it has become a dirt road now. 
This is the trail, kind of clogged with ceanothus which comes in various shades of purple, this one's white. 
Yucca
Can you see Peggy to the left of the dark bushes in the center? She's pretty tiny in this photo. This is a good example of the rugged white granite.
We wound all day among hills like this, see the trail?
Midnight Rider. 
Then just over the tracks is the monument where the 2 parts of the PCT joined.
A group of these were called the Three Sisters. 
Peggy standing beneath to give an idea of size.
That's a truck on the freeway above the culvert.
The PCT sign guides you into the culvert and then you're into Vasquez Rocks which are stunningly beautiful.
Peggy and I by Vasquez Rocks.
Not a great photo but this is taken through the porch fence looking at the yard. To the left is a horse trailer where some hikers stay, our tents are to the right of that. Many screened tents and cots are in the yard but hard to see in the trees. Far right are many bicycles.
Flowers along the way were pretty.
There was water at the Ranger Station and a cache for sodas and granola bars. We bought a soda and rested then took off for the Acton KOA and a shower, swim and laundry.
Leaving the Ranger Station by 10:00 we had 2 L of water each, our umbrellas up & we were glad to be off the road and walking on the PCT again. We met a guy from France named Happy Pants, he wore patchwork pajama bottoms and a plaid shirt, he hiked fast!
This part of trail is white granite that had sloughed off into the white sand that we were walking on, it's pretty but blindingly bright. I put on my sunglasses and sunscreen.
Resting in the shade of a scanty bush we had a snack. Who could believe we are only 30 miles from L. A.? A few times we used extra water to wet our sleeves and hair to cool us off. We can see the KOA far below us, it teases us because around every hill the trail keeps winding, never getting to the KOA. Finally we found a dirt road and took it down, that's where we met Midnight Rider, a girl doing an equestrian ride on her black horse.
She told us that last week another rider and horse had to be helicopter rescued after falling from the trail we'd just hiked. She asked us about trail conditions.
This is Jose, owner of the Acton KOA, who was generous to us hikers, giving us fresh towels for showers and bringing us a tray of watermelon, pineapple, melons & grapes from a previous group meeting. We all fell on it, fresh fruit being something we all long for. Peggy & I ordered food delivered as there was nothing at the concession. We showered, did laundry, ate and talked to other hikers camping there. We never did get to the pool but we didn't care.
I had my first blister from all the downhill, heat and dirt so moleskin and KT tape are my friends. We want to get to Agua Dulce tomorrow, 10 miles from here and a 2 mile road walk through town to Hiker Heaven and the Saufleys'. Peggy had calculated we've hiked 1,000 miles together since we met in Oregon in 2012, we only have 1300 more to go to finish our hike this year!
We put in about 15 miles today, PCT plus road walk.
Funny that my choice of camp site tonight put us right under a halogen light! No worries, we both thought it was the moon at first so we just rolled over!
I heard trains rolling by tooting whistles all night and I heard some weird roaring noise that I later learned was really a lion from an animal rescue!
Once out of the KOA we crossed the RR tracks, yep, the trail is over the tracks!
We hiked by unusual rock formations today, metamorphic rock that looks like boulders stirred into a slurry soup then baked.
Some are stuck up high on the hills.
We had 10 miles to hike to Agua Dulce so the trail had to get over Hwy 14. Here's how it was done:
It was a few miles into Agua Dulce and Hiker Heaven. Some wound through the rocks and some were road walking. Finally we were there.
Orientation, bicycles to town for food, a ride to Northridge (LA) for supplies took 4 hours (only 45 min or so driving) back to Agua Dulce to open resupply boxes and pack food up, making dinner and to tents by 8:45. There are easily 40 hikers here resting, soaking feet, favoring injuries, resupplying and either partying or working hard to get back to the trail. The organization here is amazing and that's how they handle the influx of people coming every day plus all their needs.
5/20/14 Tuesday
We showered, had breakfast, purchased lunch to bring back, blogged, used the computers and had decided to hike a few miles tonight sleeping just down the trail....That was before the clouds rolled in and now it's pouring rain. Peggy and I have tents up so we aren't worried but we're thinking we should stay here tonight because we don't want to pack up wet and then try to set up two hours later still wet.
It's cold but hikers are sitting all over the place doing chores or chatting. The 5 port a potties are getting cleaned out right now, they were pretty darn full so we will have clean potties tonight! For those who usually dig holes in the dirt we're pretty excited about this!
We'll stay the night and be gone early tomorrow 5/21/14.
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