May 10 Mad Hatter and Gnome

Joe made his famous pancakes for us and we had a nice visit with him and Teri. We signed the 2012 banner, had our picture taken, and saw the moon. All Casa De Luna traditions. Then Joe drove us to the trail head. Thanks to the Andersons we all left renewed.
I was not prepared for what I saw next. After walking about 2 hours a hiker appeared around the corner wearing a top hat, back pack and little else. He introduced himself as the Mad Hatter, I will confirm this to be true. Sorry I didn't get a pic - he was in a hurry and running late.
During the day Ooops, Nick, and I played leap frog. Hiking separately and passing one another periodically. I caught up to Ooops only to have him hold be back due to an exceptionally irritated rattler in our path. He was in striking position and continued to rattle at us for 10 minutes.



Then I pulled ahead as Ooops took more pictures. I came around a corner to find this in my path.



This is the PCT Gnome. Your suppose to carry it a ways forward and some day it will get to Canada.
Nick is from Australia and not aware of some of the PCT traditions. He had a particularly hard day. He was suffering in the heat, had to deal with a cross day hiker and when he came around the corner to see the gnome it unnerved him. In his own words :
So imagine me surprise mate when aye came around the corner and saw an ugly doll looking back at me. I blinked and looked again - He creeped me out- like the Chucky movies.
Well I laughed so hard I could barely continue walking.

Some pics from today.







We hiked until 9pm to get in a good position for tomorrow's walk to Hiker Town. The views were beautiful.
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