Today was my first leisure day of the hike. Or as thru-hikers like to call it; a ‘zero’. A day on which no miles are hiked. I tried to sleep in, but the rhythm of waking early has already caught up with me; I was wide awake at 0630. Knowing I had only a couple of chores to do today, I eased into the day. Natalie and Mark had volunteered to cook breakfast at their cabin, for which they’d already done their groceries yesterday. Around 0800 I got a message saying that breakfast would be ready soon. I paced over to their place and moments later we were served the most amazing American-style breakfast. Especially the biscuits and gravy (a mash of fried sausage, flower, butter and milk) was delicious!
After breakfast I walked back over to the campsite to get some of my chores out of the way. On today’s schedule was laundry, re-supply, charging of power-bank and getting rid off all stuff I no longer need, or didn’t want to carry with me anymore. I went over to the laundromat, which was the coolest little place, exactly as I would have imagined it. I had to get a few quarters for the machines and to get some detergent. Having some wooI clothing items, I chose to wash everything with cold water, figuring that if it would not get squeaky clean, it would not matter. After another day in the dirt I probably wouldn’t even notice I washed everything in the first place.
The rest of the day consisted of a lot of hanging around at the campsite, packing up some of my stuff, video-calling with family and friends and several walks into the village center to get my resupply sorted.
I don’t know what happened, but once again, I think I may have bought too much food (just a tad). The thing is, in the past few weeks I’ve lost weight. And there was no ‘extra’ weight on me to lose to begin with. So this is not ideal. I’ve told myself I need to eat more, so I brought more food. Let the binge-eating begin! No more hunger-games.
Tomorrow morning I will hike out to the trail-head again, which is approximately 6 miles from the campsite. I will pick up the trail right behind the fire-closure. There is the possibility to summit Mt. San Jacinto along the way, it is a side trail off the PCT, which will mean an extra 5 miles, including a whole lot of climbing. During the day I will decide how I feel about this, and if this is even feasible in regards to refilling water, and getting to a possible campsite in time. I’m excited to get out there again tomorrow!
The journey’s long
And it feels so bad
I’m thinking back to the last day we had
Old moon fades into the new
Soon I know I’ll be back with you
I’m nearly with you
I’m nearly with you
When I’m weak, I draw strength from you
And when you’re lost I know how to change your mood
And when I’m down you breathe life over me
Even though we’re miles apart we are each other’s destiny
Destiny – Zero 7
