One thing about being away on the Pacific Crest Trail is you soon start to forget about the date, the days of the week and even the holidays. I woke up on Easter morning not expecting much, ready to start a long day of waterless miles in the hot desert sun.
The day started off kind of mundane, lots of walking and zoning in and out in the heat. Everyone was feeling tired and sleep deprived. Tumeric and I hiked 5 miles at 9pm last night and we have a huge waterless stretch in front of us on a hot day.
Oh let me introduce you to the crew. At this point, there are five of us travelling together. Happy, who got his trail name from the Appalachian trail because he sings the song “if you are happy and you know it clap your hands” when night hiking. Kim/Taylor/Yellow Rose/ICB, a girl from Texas who has an existential crisis and can’t decide on a name. J Boogie, a new yorker who likes to boogie down trail at incredible speeds. Last but not least, newly named Tumeric because she put way too much Tumeric in her food the first night she tried cold soak instant noodles. (I now know what turmeric tastes like)
Us hanging out at Paradise Valley Cafe
Anyway, after lunch, J Boogie went ahead on his superhuman speed to try to get to the water cache before it gets too hot. Turmeric trailed behind, having an out of it day. Exhausted and thirsty, we finally came across the next water cache after 11 miles of hiking and saw the most interesting sign ever. Sorry I got no photos since I was in a hurry and you will see why. The sign reads: “Easter dinner service 2 miles ahead, 11:30-2:30” I look at my watch and it’s 1:40. Yea there was no time for photos.
I start booking it down the trail, trying to make the 2 miles of hot uphill as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Happy calmly walking behind. In his wisdom he says: “I don’t get my hopes up anymore because you never know what you will find. It could be gone by the time you got there.” Well I wasn’t convinced so I still eagerly flew ahead while Kim and Happy trailed 50 meters behind and Tumeric out of sight, sauntering slowly.
The two miles killed me, uphill, dry and hot with 11 miles before that already taking a toll. I finally counted down the miles and saw the most incredible thing.
Three canopies with picnic tables, grills, glassware and there was someone dressed up as a server at a high end restaurant. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I walked down towards the crowds of people in a bit of a tired daze, trying to decide if this was a desert mirage.
Immediately, I hear and see people I recognize call out to me, greeting happily. Okay it’s real. I get up to the main area and took in the sights. Wine glasses filled with wine, big plates of salmon and steak and people laughing and smiling all around. Almost immediately, I was handed a huge plate of steak with potatoes, veggies and almonds and poured a tall glass of iced coffee. I couldn’t believe it. After those hard, tiring miles of desert and sand, this is beyond anything I could’ve dreamed.
Did I mention there is dessert? Not desert, we had a bunch of them.
Professional service
James and Keilegh from day 1!
Tumeric showed up late and had to “settle” for 6 plates of dessert and a tall glass of wine. She’s really happy still. Maybe it’s just the wine and sugar.
After, I had the pleasure of meeting Mary, the owner of this piece of Easter miracle. She has been doing this every year, welcoming hikers with a place to hang out, shower and relax. The crazy thing is that she is only one of many people that do this. We were so incredibly blessed to meet such generous women and had such luck to arrive at this location on Easter.
There’s nothing better than what I experienced here after 13 miles of endless dry desert slopes. This Easter turned out to be the best Easter of my life and will end up as one of my favourite memories of this trail. This is just an example but there are numerous generosities I have already experienced and I bet there are plenty more to come. I came into PCT looking for the incredible views but it’s the people and the friendships that I will end up remembering the most.
