Packed and scooted early.   Can’t wait to see my wife!

There was a small hot climb then down to a valley that crossed under the 14.   This portion of the trail enters Vasquez Rocks park.   Turns out that this is pretty neat place.   I’ve seen it from the highway for years, but never stopped here.   I need to go back some time with Alice.

There is a drainage tunnel under the 14 that we cross through.   It was long, dark, wet and full of horse shit.   But…..it was soooo cool.    Every hiker came through here and sat down in the muck to get out of the heat.   Met up with Wing It again and we talked about this.   Our families would never understand how wonderful this is….sitting next to a pile of horse manure.  

Anyway, after cooling down we headed out together again.  Got some cool pictures of Vasquez Rocks area as we climbed up.

And out of the park

The last 1.5 miles looked like this on the map:

When you see straight lines like this, it can be certain we’ll be walking on the highway.   That sucked, but the bar at the end of the line didn’t !    Burgers, smoothies, 3 jars of water later I was pretty happy.   Meanwhile Alice was driving around trying to find me. 

I was sitting on the porch of the grill half-asleep with some other hikers when I saw this red truck drive by with my wife at the wheel.   I called her and waited while she passed by the other direction yet again, then finally she figured out where to park.   OMG.   The hikers I was with got a little laugh out of it all.  

But it was a happy ending!   Time to go home for a couple days !