Gotta Love those Angels!

The Iconic Meadow Ed

 

                This post is dedicated to the Trail Angels

Where would the long distance hiker be without the awesome help of the trail angels? The trail would be doable, it just wouldn't be as fun.

 

The trail angel is someone who helps hikers out along the trail, usually without regard to personal gain. This is known as Trail Magic. An angel could be as simple as providing an ice cold beer or soda to an unsuspecting hiker, or as grand as opening up their houses to hundreds of hikers every year for showers, sleeping, and meals.

When we started out the first time, we had no idea we would run into trail angels. There wasn't so many back then, and it was a foreign concept to us. Our first was Pat and Paul in Anza, who opened their home to us, to use their computers, allowing us to camp on their lawn, and cooking for us. Near Grassy Hollow visitor center, a mom was resupplying her son with fruit and bread, had extra and loaded us down with the rest of the goodies.

 

And then came the Saufly's, who not only opened their home to us, but had an extra mobile home out in the back for us to use for showers, TV, and cooking. They ran around taking us anywhere we needed to go like REI, and numerous resturants, and still had energy left over for taking care of Pocahontas for a week, who had a foot injury, while Legasorus went on ahead to hike the Mojave.
 

The Saufly's in Agua Dulce
 



This list can't be complete without the iconic Meadow Ed, who camped up at Kennedy Meadows, playing Cribbage with Legasorus, providing words of wisdom to all the hikers, and scaring us with stories of another hiker perishing over one of the High Sierra passes that year.

And how can we forget the time, when, after struggling up Mt. Whitney, trying to catch our breath, we were handed a nice cold Pepsi from a total stranger as we crested an ice wall.

 

There were more trail angels here and there who would offer us rides to town, or to a trail head. And because of these fine folks we have been inspired to do our own brand of trail magic.

At first we gave rides to people coming off the Eagle Creek Trail in Oregon, then graduated to camping out for a week at Lava Camp Lake near Sisters, with another hiker, Lost and Found. We have provided shelter, food, a place to sleep, and rides into town for 2 years now.

 

But this really isn't about us, but about all those angels past, present, and future. We want to salute you all, and we look forward to meeting each and everyone of all you generous souls out there who just want to give for the fun of it.