Day 4, April 21: Mile 46 to 60 and into Julian
Start: Mile 45.8 tentsite
End: Sunrise TH - 59.5
Miles: 13.7
Ascent: 1548 | Descent: 2443
I left my mountaintop campsite just after 6am and hiked along while I soaked in the beauty of the mountain landscape. It was windy but the vistas were stunning and I was feeling refreshed from some introvert time.
After hiking for a little while, I came to the Pioneer Mail Picnic Area at mile 53 and again, caught the big group right as they were leaving. They told me where they would be camping and I hoped to link up with them.
As I sat at the picnic area, I met more people: Chimney Sweep (recently named as such because she is constantly a filthy mess; it suits her and her bubbly, carefree personality in the best possible way), Autumn, Danny and Steve, who were all hiking as a group. Dustin (who I camped with) was also there, and a new friend Shaleyn from Canada. Shaelyn is into birding and identified a cute yellow bird with a red head in a nearby tree as a Western Tanagaer. She even had binoculars to look at them. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting and hanging with this group as everyone was friendly and good natured.
I continued on and took in the beauty of the desert. I am loving this section even more than I thought I would! It’s shockingly green and lush.
I caught up with Chimney Sweep, Autumn, Danny and Steve who were waiting on a trail angel to pick them up and take them into Julian. They invited me to go with them and I quickly decided that sleeping in a bed in a building sounded far better than being out in the storm that was forecasted to roll through, so I hopped in the hitch with them.
We got to Julian which is a cute, old fashioned town and the five of us went to Julian Cafe for a meal. Everything on the menu sounded good, but I landed on a patty melt with cole slaw and I also split an apple/candied walnut/avocado/romaine salad with Chimney Sweep. Fresh veggies!!
After lunch, we wandered around town a bit and bought some essentials- a loofah and some beer. Autumn and I stopped by Mom’s Pie Shop- they give each PCT hiker who shows their permit a free slice of pie, and there was no way we could turn down that offer! I got pecan with vanilla ice cream.
The group had booked a tiny house through Airbnb in Banner, about 15 min down the road from Julian. We got a ride with Rangel the trail angel, who regaled us with stories of his past and then took the classic “one smiling faces, one silly faces” selfies that he takes with every hiker group he shuttles around. Rangel is a well known and incredibly generous trail angel in the Julian area, and we’re so grateful for his help!
Once we got to the tiny house, we all took showers which were glorious and we relaxed inside a building(!). It was fun to get to know the other four more! They had the best vibes, a very friendly, open and hilarious group. I was grateful to be included with them.
We thought we’d go back into town to get a beer and hang with other hikers, but everything closed at 8pm and it was already too late. Ah, small towns. So, we drank whiskey we had also bought in town and listened happily to the storm coming down outside, thankful to not be in it.