Cowboy camp next to old water tank to Casa De Luna

Got up fairly early, cowboy camping seems to encourage getting up early, no lounging around in the tent. 

A great cool morning of hiking, actually all day the temperatures stayed cool, and there was a decent breeze as well, and at times I was rather on the chilly side. 

The trail today was great, wide and smooth and pretty much rock free. Made it possible to look around while hiking instead of constantly having to watch where I was placing my feet. 

The miles were easy, and even taking my time and a couple long breaks, I managed to get to my destination, a trail angel's house called Casa De Luna. 

I think there are about 30 hikers here tonight. I hear there were around 70 a couple nights ago, so it looks like I'm probably in between a couple big clumps of hikers. 
Everyone is camped out behind the house in a cool manzanita forest with winding paths and lots of carved out tent spaces.

The Leona Divide 50 was the brainchild of Bob Kimmerly who in late 1991 with his friends John Swallow and Don Hughes mapped out a 50 mile course through the beautiful Angeles National Forest near Lake Hughes. A portion of the race traveled the Leona Divide Truck Trail and passed through Leona Divide twice, hence the name. Losing his battle with cancer in January of 1992, Bob never saw his dream, but his family and friends made sure it became a reality in April of 1992.

https://leonadivide5050.com/race-details/

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2021 Update:

Got up fairly early, cowboy camping seems to encourage getting up early, no lounging around in the tent. 

A great cool morning of hiking, actually all day the temperatures stayed cool, and there was a decent breeze as well, and at times I was rather on the chilly side. 

The trail today was great, wide and smooth and pretty much rock free. Made it possible to look around while hiking instead of constantly having to watch where I was placing my feet. 

There were also some actual trees along the way, so plenty of shady spots for taking breaks at.

At one bend in the trail there was an unexpected bench carved with a memorial message. There was also a sign with times for a 50 mile trail running race. Apparently, the man who's name was carved on the bench (Bob Kimmerly) was organizing the race, but passed away before the first one happened.

The sign has the winning times for the races from 1992 to 2010. Pretty cool.

By the way, the race is still going on if anyone is interested. Looks like they do 100k, 50 Mile, 50k distances now.

https://leonadivide5050.com/race-details/

The miles were easy, and even taking my time and a couple long breaks, I managed to get to my destination, a trail angel's house called Casa De Luna. 

Actually, I hiked to where the PCT intersects San Francisquito Canyon Road and then started walking along the road toward Green Valley, then small town where Casa De Luna is located. I was just about out of water, and the road walk was going to be a mile or two, so I crossed the road to the forest service fire station that was just a few yards down the road. Unfortunately there wasn't anyone around, and I didn't find a water spigot.

But, as I was sitting in the shade taking a break, a car drove into the parking lot and the guy driving asked if I wanted a ride down to Casa De Luna. Nice guy, said he keeps an eye out for hikers and gives them rides when he can.

I think there are about 30 hikers here tonight. I hear there were around 70 a couple nights ago, so it looks like I'm probably in between a couple big clumps of hikers. 

Like some other trail angel houses, the owners here (The Andersons) are assisted by volunteers, usually former or current hikers in running the place. They had a bunch of gaudy shirts for people to wear while doing laundry if they needed. They also had a bunch of chairs and couches and tables set up for weary hikers to rest on. There was also food, taco salad or haystacks in the afternoon/evening and breakfast stuff in the morning. Hikers walked or got rides to the store in town, bringing back soda or beer, and there was plenty of sharing.

There was also plenty of stuff in the hiker box, or boxes.

Hiker boxes are, well, boxes that hikers leave extra stuff in so other hikers that might need something can help themselves.

Quite often hikers who send themselves food in the mail will find themselves with too much food, since it is difficult to predict how hungry you're going to be when you are planning things months in advance.

So, since hikers also tend to minimize packaging, that sometimes leads to a bunch of mystery bags of mystery dehydrated food in the hiker box.

Sometime there are gear items too, particularly early in the trail. Back at Mount Laguna I saw a tent or two, and a backpack. Somewhere I saw a sleeping bag. Lots of other luxury items too. People tend to start with too much stuff, and when they decide to shed weight, into the closest hiker box the extra items go. 
Everyone is camped out behind the house in a cool manzanita forest with winding paths and lots of carved out tent spaces.

Photos from today: https://www.b-photo.com/Travel/PCT-2016-Day-by-Day/May/May-25/

Mighty Mouse's blog for this area: http://www.timandgerri.com/blog---2016/day-44-mile-46823-47823