Miles Hiked: 22.4
I woke up at 5am under the massive tree where I cowboy camped with Angus and Rainbow. 23 miles to Highway 18. I wanted to get there as early as reasonably possible just so my feet could have a long recovery time in town. I left camp first and hiked for 9.5 miles straight before taking a break to stretch and eat. I kept asking other hikers around me if they had seen a girl named Passport. Passport is someone who hiked the AT the same year as me in 2019. We have some mutual hiking friends and I have talked to her a lot through Instagram. I knew I was very close to her and wanted to make sure I didn’t pass her up by accident. A few hikers told me they had saw Passport early this morning.
At my break I texted Kenny. A Trail Angel in the town of Big Bear who hosts hikers at his house. I had my packages sent to his place. Kenny said there was room for all three of us tonight. I was looking forward to being picked up by him! After my break I continued on. I took my next break at a picnic table with a bunch of other hikers. I thought it was the water source since I saw a faucet but it wasn’t working. Here I got to meet Passport finally! Angus and Rainbow met me here as well. It was 11 am and we only had 10 miles to go after taking some nice long breaks. What an easy day!
We all easily made it to the road by 3pm taking two more breaks in the shade. A lot of other hikers were going into town today too. I texted Kenny when we were 30 minutes from the road like he asked. When we got there we hung out in the shade for a little bit. Kenny pulled up in a blue car and asked if anyone was looking for him. The three of us got in his car and he handed us all a cold soda the second we sat down. Amazing.
Kenny is the sweetest trail angel I have ever met. He drove us back to his house where he dropped us off and gave us a short tour before going to pick up some other hikers. Kenny’s house was filled with musical instruments and photos of his kids. He showed us some left overs from Cinco De Mayo so we could make burritos for lunch. He also gave me my two packages I had shipped to his house. A resupply package from my family and a box of Protein Pucks sent from Protein Puck! We all hung out and ate food while we waited for Kenny to come back. As soon as he did we all got started on showers and laundry. We all ended the night in Kenny’s hot tub with some drinks. We got to meet a tramily named the Happy Campers who all started together a week before us. They certainly were happy campers.
Happy Trails!
-Early Bird
Des Hikes Thru 