Agua Dulce's water is very sweet.

Thanks for all the love!  No worries on the heat stroke thing, Keith's sickness wasn't related to that, we were sure of it.  He got some sort of bug, don't know where from but it was quick-ended & short & we were SO happy that it only lasted through the morning.  He had to force himself to throw up & felt better but not 100% better until after receiving that amazing trail magic from Shepherd & resting in the shade throughout most of the heat of that day.  We take many breaks throughout the day & as soon as we feel out of sorts at all, we stop, find any kind of shade that's there & force ourselves to drink & eat.

Got in early yesterday morning into Agua Dulce & stopped first thing at Sweetwater Cafe for a very yummy breakfast.  Reunited with No. 2, then went to the grocery store for round #2 - more food & cold drinks.  Our favorite lunch right now is a tomato, avocado, spinach, cheese & mayonnaise sandwich on wheat bread.  So we bought ingredients for that (again) after eating it back in Wrightwood as well.  Speaking of Wrightwood, we stopped in to check the post office & were pleasantly surprised at receiving a few packages/letters from people/cats we love.  It supplied us with enough food to make it all the way here, which was amazing!  Wrightwood was very friendly to us, we were given some free food from the grocery store & we were bummed we weren't spending more money there.  We passed on staying in town because we had just spent the night at the Best Western down in Cajon Pass 1 1/2 nights before, so we were focused on making it here, to Agua Dulce next.

We have passed through some absolutely beautiful places.  The mountains we just went through were so diverse & so beautiful.  We especially enjoyed the 8,000 ft.+ parts because there were trees!  The Vasquez Rocks, rock formations just about a mile before we arrived here, were breathtaking & blew our minds.  Walking through tunnels under highways while taking turns playing our instruments (my Native American flute & Keith's harmonica) makes for some fun & spiritual moments.

I guess we came out here with an expectation of solitude, but we are finding that that's not very often the case.  There are a lot of people out here...a lot more than we expected, at least.  Perhaps we should have come out with no expectations at all.  We stayed last night here at the trail angel's house - The Saufley's, the only place to stay for hikers here in Agua Dulce.  They are very kind, giving people & cater entirely to hikers.  It's amazing that they open up their property & let us pretty much take over for at least a month straight (as hikers filter through).  The part we most have enjoyed is the bicycles they have here for us to use to run our errands.  We feel so spoiled...I imagine what it would've been like to hike this trail or the AT 10-15 years ago, or more.

We had plans to zero here but have decided to move on later today, after the heat of the day cools down.  We might go to the pizza place to see if we can catch a Red Wings game before we leave.  We spent the afternoon yesterday watching a Detroit Tigers game & we have never seen anyone get as excited for baseball as Mud & Dingo!  (Mud is originally from Michigan & Dingo is originally from Ohio)  Reunited with Acid Glasses, The Blur (Keith gets credit for giving him his trail name because he hikes so dang fast but just recently someone literally got a picture of him hiking early in the morning but all he is in the picture is just a blur!), Faceplate (or is it Licenseplate?) Dan, Paul from England who is now Walkie Talkie, Matt, The Andrews, Mermaid, Thread & many others as well.  The remainder of the Mexican Train (many of the hikers we started with at the Mexican border) are just behind us.

Received some more packages here & are thankful again for the love we receive from friends & family.  It pulls at our heart strings.  Thank you.  If you'd like to send us something at our next pick-up location (Kennedy Meadows), you can send it now because we are expecting to arrive there in just over 2 weeks.

Our next destination (where we will for sure zero) will be Tehachapi which has a MOVIE THEATER.  We are SO pumped to watch the new Star Trek movie & eat as much popcorn as our hearts desire.  We've been dreaming of that for the past few days straight now.

We are currently at mile 454-ish & have been warned that the next 250+ miles are going to be super hot & super exposed.  We are so greatly looking forward to the Sierra's & beyond!  We'll take it one day at a time & keep on keepin' on. 

Life is good.

Goodbye for now.  Much love.