May 25, another Oasis?

Back on the trail, today we were up at 4:25 am, excited to move and finally get some miles behind us again. The day got pretty hot, pretty early and my feet felt pretty bad, pretty fast. I am not sure if it's the new shoes (the used, not new ones taken from the hiker box, that is) or my soft, lazy ass, R&R-week-in-LA spoiled feet. Hopefully the latter, as my opportunity to get new sneakers again is just about nil until my mom comes to visit in two and a half weeks. The day was a good one, though, aside from the aches and pains and the heavy, first day out packs. We were good and alone again out there. The streams were flowing strong and we felt free.

At around noon we came upon a strange scene. Rounding a bend, we were confronted by a grotesque, grinning sight. Before us, an undead pirate partyer hung from a Manzanita limb, Miller Genuine Draft affixed in hand. It was a plastic prop placed at the entrance to the Casa De Luna Oasis water (plus) cache. Passing under the living bough header, we found ourselves in a shady little room furnished with beach chairs, 5 gallons of water, an extra sweat shirt (?) and a fully stocked cooler. We were tickled and delighted and sat there reading and applying ourselves to the register for the next hour. The Casa de Luna, our next trail angel stop was only 6 miles away and we were in no hurry to leave the cozy confines of our little trailside fort.

We were fortunate during our rest stop to be present while Joe, one of the proprietors of the Casa de Luna, and another hiker showed up on a restocking mission. He was loud and goofy, the kind of guy who likes to poke fun and get a rise out of people. They sat and drank a beer--he never drinks before noon, and thank God it was almost 12:20--and he told a few stories of how good a time he and his wife like to have with the hikers each year. Once, they heard tell that a few young hikers, kids right out of highschool, were camping at the cache and that they were jonesin' for some weed. Well, he and Terrie rolled right out there at midnight bearing flashlighs an a big bag of weed, looking to have a litle fun with these kids. They showed up, torches blazing, and gave the kids a nice scare, claiming to be cops or something, before coming clean and settling down right along with them for a nice session under the stars. He seemed nice enough, a real character to be sure.

Later on, after a shower and a bellyful of Terrie's specialty taco salad, we weren't sure when we would be back on the trail. Rumor has it, thre's even another hiker place 40 mils down the way, Hikertown, where we will be encouraged once again to dally away more of our time. We're not sure what's happening...we're going to start expecting everyone to take us in and feed us wherever we go, this can't be any good! We're being spoiled!

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