JackandBarb - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2011

Today we would hike out from Lake Morena, across Cottonwood Creek under the interstate 8, and up into the Laguna Mountains. But today's story isn't about the hike but rather the *after hike*.

We have two cars, a toyota prius and a ford ranger. Each morning we drive them both to our destination, drop one off and return to our start point.

As planned, early today we took the prius to Cibbets Flat campground, a 15 mile drive away.

Back at Lake Morena Barb turned to Jack and said: *I am putting the car key in my jacket* then somewhere along the way she switched jackets and the jacket with the key got packed in the ranger.

So off we went, without a key to the Prius.

The day was fun. We had to remove our shoes to cross knee deep Cottonwood Creek. We had lunch at a peaceful campground called Boulder Oaks and could feel the trucks rumbling overhead as we crossed under the interstate and an illegal alien scurried by, stopping only briefly to chat. He was on his way to LA. The weather again was near perfect but now the real story begins.

A toyota prius has sophisticated electronics. You don't use a key to open the door but instead you have a fob that automatically unlocks the door when you touch the handle

So we reach the campground. Everyone is in great spirits - Barb goes up to the car and grabs the door handle. Nothing, no beep beep, nothing.

Barb: *I had a damn sinking feeling. I took off my day pack, held it near the door, and grabbed the handle again. I was like a pedestrian at a red light punching away at the walk button hoping it would do something. It did not.*

She turned to Jack and Scott and said: *Ahhh, I left the key at Lake Morena*

A bit of info about the campground. Cibbets Flat is on the end of a dead end road, 5 miles up the hill from the interstate. There is nothing else on this road but the campground and this time of year it is hardly used

Jack says: *We are so screwed*! Our minds were racing for a solution - Jack continues *Okay, I'm going to jog down the hill 5 miles to the frontage road then try to hitch back to the lake*

But Barb had other ideas. She would try to yogi a ride from the only other people that had a car in the campground

**it turned out to be a classic presentation that even The Yogi would be proud of **

Barb walked up to the group, looked at the young boys first and said: *If you look up stupid in the dictionary you will see my picture.* then she went on to tell them about how we had hiked 13 miles up from Lake Morena and left her car keys in the other car

The people initially had reservations about giving us a ride

Jack: if it was me I might not feel good about it either. Here are 2 people who come out from the mountains with backpacks on that could have, well, who knows what inside them and they dish up some weird story about hiking all the way in from Lake Morena.

But the man knew that we were for real and offered a ride. Barb offered to pay for his time and his fuel but the man said **No, just pay it forward.**

So off we went to Lake Morena. Chuck and Gina in the front and us in the back. It was 15 miles down and 15 back up.

It's refreshing to know that there are people out there willing to trust complete strangers and help them out when they can

Thank you Chuck and Gina, thank you.

Next, from this fiasco, Barb earns her trail name. (but before you turn the page do go back and read the entry of November 17 - about Yogiing, the answer is there.)