Took my first NERO day i.e. a day with less mileage than usual where one goes into a nearby town for food resupply or some other reason. I had to go into Idyllwild, CA to pick up my first resupply box. So, hiked about 10 miles to Saddle Junction and then took a 2.6 mile detour on Devil's Slide trail to a trailhead near the town. Luckily, as soon as reached the trailhead parking lot, there was a kind lady who offered me a ride into town. This is very common for thru-hikers to hitch a ride into town. The lady, who went by her trail name, Mrs Bubbles, had a very interesting life. She was a true-blue van-lifer (see Nomadland movie). For the past 3+ years, she had been living in a van (now a car) and went around visiting different places in the country. She also hiked an average of 50 miles a week in various parks. What an interesting life!
And, yes, the Mayor of Idyllwild is an actual dog 😀. That's one heck of a weirdly fun town! Stayed at a hotel today. And funnily enough, there was a wedding at that hotel last night and they had leftover goodies that they donated to the hikers to eat and take. My first meal in town, thanks to the wedding party, below:
Had it sitting next to the koi pond in the back deck of the hotel
Here are the hiker boxes in the hotel, which had lots of good stuff, but alas, all too "heavy" to carry along.
Speaking of hiker boxes, I had dropped my beanie on the trail this morning. Typically I make sure everything is either in my pocket or in the backpack. However, this morning I took the beanie off my head as it was getting warm and then carried it in my hand, and somehow dropped it somewhere. Duh me! 🤦🏽♂️ But, very fortunately, when I went to buy one in town in a sports shop, the sales guy said there was a nice one in the hiker box outside and viola! it was still there. The trail taketh and the trail provides 😀
Btw, the hike this morning was a proper obstacle course with lots of dead trees blown down into the trail.
One had to climb on them, or crawl under them, or go around them and they were not small trees.
(Sorry I don't have my watch data today, as it got stopped in the middle - I must have hit some button - and I resumed it only after 1.5 hrs. I will reconcile with the official data and post it here later)
Comments
Awesome pictures Ravi, so glad you are safe and moving towards your goal. Should I say baby steps. Ha ha ha