May 1, 2021
Mile 115 to Mile 134.8
Helllooooo, party people! I think I have a trail family???? It’s been a week and these people keep sticking around. Its kind of funny because I thought I’d be around 20 year old bros but im with Weird Orange and Jedi who are in their 40s and AB who is in her late 30s. I *was* the youngest by a long shot but we have adopted a few more folks. Herb and Crusher and Tom (now Shit Kicker) are sticking with us too. Its a very fun group.
We started hiking early at 6am. I felt GREAT this morning. My body just wanted to move. Same feeling when I go for a run for the first time after a while. I let my legs take over. I was leading the pack for a lot of the morning which was fun. It was another 10 by 10 and we made it to Mike’s Place by like 11:30.
Mike’s Place has a bit of a weird rep because I think a lot of rednecks go there. But we rolled in and it was pretty much just us. We met Mike and Spirit. Jedi got roped into helping Spirit with manual labor. Mike made hotdogs and passed out some beer. I refrained but I did cook a hot meal with my stove.
Our big plans for tomorrow include going to Paradise Valley Cafe. It’s known for its burgers but i’m just excited for a real meal and maybe a beer. It’ll be my first real food in 8 days!! It’s half a mile or so off trail and we need to go 17 miles to get there. Online it says its opened until 7 or 8pm but someone said they called and its only opened until 3pm. So we are BOOKING IT there and hope to arrive before 2. But we will see. There will be some very sad hikers if its closed.
After that we have 1.5 days to Idyllwild. Our fam has some big dreams for Idyllwild. Everyone wants to take a Zero day but im not sure if I want to. I do want to stay with the group though. And I do really need a shower and laundry. I’m so filthy i can’t even describe it. So many town chores: post office, laundry, shower, charge electronics, upload blogs. I could maybe do it in one evening depending on how early we get in. But we will see.
We planned on doing 10 miles after Mike’s Place but we were all tired so only made it 7-8. We’re camping in a little valley and its pretty nice. We just sat on the trail and ate dinner. I had more noodles. It’s only 8pm and I can already go to sleep!! Which I’ll need to soon to wake up at 4:30 lol.
