It was nice to join the others last night, I got to stay with Natalie, Thad, Jimmy and Natalie in their cabin and thus had 2 consecutive nights with showers (unbelievable right?!). After sleeping in (ahem, 0630) I got up, checked my phone and saw that Jimmy and Natalie were already out and getting coffee at a local bakery. I joined them and we had breakfast in the early morning sun. It was lovely. Afterwards, we headed back to the cabin to get all the town-chores done; laundry, grocery shopping, postage. This is what it looks like when through hikers resupply; pick-nick tables stacked with ramen, pop-tarts, gummy-bears, cous-cous, tortillas, string-cheese, coffee, hot chocolate, trail-mix and other no-need-for-refrigeration food.
Because I carried out so much food the last stretch, I still had a quite a bit left. I was very determined to sort out my resupply strategy better. I didn’t get a shopping-supervisor in the end, but made lists of exactly what I was going to buy, and stuck to it. In the end when weighing my pack I was real happy, as it was so much lighter than when I set out from BB-Lake. Should be enough for the next 90 miles. We’re heading towards Aqua Dulce, to a place called hiker-heaven. There’s a family of trail angels who’ll take care of anything a hiker could want; laundry, food, lodging, shuttle-service to local grocery stores, and you can even ship resupply-boxes to their home. Should be great, I believe pretty much every thru-hiker is making a stop there, so it should also be a place to see lots of familiar faces again. After Aqua Dulce there is a 110 mile stretch to Tehachapi. Instead of carrying a heavy pack with 5 days of food, I packaged a little resupply-box for 3 days, and sent it ahead to the elusive place called hiker-town. It should be a very interesting little town in the middle of the desert which hosts pretty much only hikers. I read a blogpost that said that it was however not a very good place to buy food. Hence the resupply box there.
After resupply it was time for a final dinner in town (cheeseburger, fries and a giant chocolate milkshake) before heading out to the trail again. We were offered a ride in the afternoon, and initially we thought to be getting back to the very steep trail all of us descended yesterday, to climb back up to the PCT again. There was however an option to get to a campsite a little further up the trail. This would save us the tough climb, but we’d skip a part of the PCT this way. We decided to go for it and once back up on the PCT, to back-track the part we’d skipped. So around 1800, I set out again to get the remaining 1 mile in before turning around and hike that same mile back to the campsite. It was nice to just stretch the legs for a very brief time, get the PCT miles out of the way, and to calmly set up camp. It’s going to be a very cold night, we’re camped at 8300 ft. and during dinner it was already getting chilly. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset, and everyone is excited to get back at it tomorrow.
Is there anyone who, ever remembers
changing their mind from the paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who, really recalls
ever breaking record off,
for something someone yelled real loud one time?
Oh everyone believes,
in how they think it ought to be
Oh everyone believes
And they’re not going easily
Belief is a beautiful armor,
it makes for the heaviest swords
Like punching under water,
you never can hit who you trying for
Some need the exhibition,
some have to know they tried.
It’s the chemical weapon
for the war that’s ranging on inside
Oh everyone believes
from emptiness to everything
Oh everyone believes
and no-one’s going quietly
Belief – John Mayer
