Sunday, June 17th

Sunday June 17th:  Happy Fathers day to all the fathers out there. I thought yesterday was Sunday therefore making it Fathers Day in my mind. I was upset because I did not have any service while up on the particular mountain range I was on yesterday and I could not call my father or grandfather. However, it wasn't until I arrived in town today that I was informed that TODAY was Sunday! So I didn't miss the Fathers day calls after all! I went all week being a day off. Thats what happens when you live in the mountains without any real outside information. You truly do loose track of time and days.

Today was a wonderful day. I woke up relatively around the time I was planning on (which almost never happens) and was hiking by 5:25am. I hiked 15 miles by 10:45am including 2 hours of breaks for water re-up. I stood at the road leading to the town of Lake Isabella for 1 hour and 10 minutes attempting to get to hitch and heres why... Coming out of Tehachapi CA (which was the last town) I knew I had a potential 8 day resupply to get to Kennedy Meadows (which is just before the beginning of the Sierra Nevada Mountains). I also knew that carrying 8 days of food coupled with all the water I was going to carry was going to be difficult. So, I resupplied lightly, both in weight and actually quantity. I thought I was so clever. My pack felt as good as it could have for the situation when coming out of town. It wasn't two days into the 140 mile stretch that I realized that I did NOT have enough food to make it all the way to Kennedy Meadows. In fact I figured I was 2 1/2 days short! I had a moment of intense panic when I realized that I was stuck in the middle of nowhere without enough food to get myself to....somewhere with food. Alas! I realized that if I could make it to Walker Pass I could potentially hitch hike 37 miles on highway 178 to the town of Lake Isabella. Which takes me back to why I was standing on the side of the hot blacktop in the noon sun and heat of the desert for an hour and 10 minutes. I was getting slightly frustrated with how difficult the hitch was proving to be right as a truck pulled up on the side of the road and the nice couple inside agreed to take us to Lake Isabella! Marvin and Debbie proved to be one of the friendliest hitches I've ever gotten in my life....and I've gotten more than I could ever count. They drove myself and 3 other repulsively smelly hikers 37 miles to town. Upon arriving close to town they informed us that if we wanted they could swing by and pick us back up on their way out of town and drive us back to the trail. Two of the hikers were planning on staying a night in town but Baboon and I excitedly agreed.

We arrived in town around 2:45pm and immediately hit up the Burger King. I got a veggie burger, sweet potato fries, and a soda. Then off to the grocery store. Because I was only buying food for two and 1/2 days I wasn't overly concerned about weight. Thus the apple, banana, orange, 1 pound of fresh California dates, 4 bran muffins, and an entire 1 pound bag of tootsie pops... among other items!!

After that was all settled Marvin and Debbie kept their word and picked us up at the grocery store and took us back to the trail. There is potential to meet back up with them sometime around Independence (9 days from now). I'm really hoping we can make that work out. I'd love to get to know these kind people a little better. Thank you Marvin and Debbie!!

Todays miles: 17

One last thought:  There are three things that remain constant when attempting to read the elevation profile for the PCT
1.) When the line is flat it REALLY means that you are going to go uphill
2.) When the line is already uphill it means that its just really going to suck.
3.) When the line is downhill it means that you are going to hike a series of both ups and downs with perhaps slightly more downhill so that you 'technically' end at a lower point than where you started. F*ck you elevation profile. You are a lying bitch!