Miles Hiked: 4.1
Total Mileage: 155.9
I woke up in bed around 7am after a great night of sleep. I spent the morning catching up on writing my blog since I have been too tired to do it at camp. For me it’s pretty difficult to sit down all at once and recall the past few days in detail to write about them. It took me about two hours but I was happy to lay in bed and do it. My muscles felt like they needed a break so bad. For breakfast I had a banana and a probiotic drink. At 10am we had to check out so I walked 0.6 to the main road where there was a gas station on the corner. Before we could even stick our thumbs out to hitch three miles back into town, A man named Wayne saw Jillian, Sammy, and I with our backpacks on and asked if we needed a ride.
Wayne dropped us off in the middle of town at his favorite breakfast spot called Mama’s Egg House. I treated myself to a nice breakfast of eggs Benedict. It was a busy place but the food was very good After breakfast I went to the grocery store to grab a few more items for resupply since I ate all my chips and cookies for dinner last night! On the way I passed a restaurant called Fratellos and Chewy and Pippin who just made it to town today waved me over. I sat down and hung out with them for a little bit. Before leaving town I had to get one last ice cream from Atomic Cow. While I was sitting in the town center with Jillian, Sammy, Eagle Eye, and Katie, Blaze the traveling physical therapist came over to talk to us. I’ve seen flyers for her services but it was so cool to meet her in person! She has my dream job. She lives in a van with her dog honey and drives along the trail in her van treating hikers for a very reasonable price. I don’t have anything wrong with me luckily but it’s nice to know that if I do need to see a PT I can call Blaze! Whenever I have seen health care professionals for Injuries related to long distance hiking it’s extremely frustrating because none of them really understand what I am doing. After an infection being mistaken for an overuse injury because a doctor wouldn’t listen to me, I told myself I’d never tell a doctor I am thru hiking again. Blaze thru hiked in 2019 and saw the need for a health care provider who understands what hikers do and what they need. She is stationed in Idyllwild for a couple of weeks before she will move up the trail to Wrightwood CA. Another town stop for hikers. Blaze will also come directly to the trail to meet hikers as well. I asked if she would ever do it on any other trails and she said probably not since she has to get a license for practicing in every state. Luckily California is 1,700 miles of the PCT and she has an Oregon license as well.
Around 3pm I hitch hiked out of town with Jillian and Sammy. It took us two hitches to get there since the trail was about 30 minutes out of town on two major roads. We were picked up very quickly by locals who give hikers rides frequently. It was very hot when we were dropped off around 3:20 and I hiked the four miles to camp as fast as I could. I wanted to take a zero day today but I didn’t want to pay to stay a second night in town just yet. Also in the desert it is importabt to get an early morning start to avoid the heat so waking up on trail is important. Getting a reliable ride from town to trail at 5am is almost impossible. When we were trying to get around town we looked into Uber which wasn’t available and the local taxi service which was totally unreliable and not responsive. Hitch hiking it was for us!
Camp was sheltered nicely by some trees. I cowboy camped and about 7 other hikers pitched their tents nearby. I camped with Jillian, Eagle Eye, Cross Roads, Becky, Hannah, Veronica, Sebastian, and Buren. We all watched the sun set together on one of the massive white granite rocks we have been walking by and shortly went to bed around 8pm.
Happy Trails!
-Early Bird
Des Hikes Thru 