Hillbilly

This morning I woke up to the sound of someone else’s alarm going off at about 5 am. This wouldn’t have been a problem if they had also woken up to the sound of it. But they didn’t. So for 30 minutes I had to listen to that annoying jingle repeat itself over and over again. After they finally turned it off I tried to find sleep again but it had been lost for the morning.

While I was cleaning my pot and eating cup at the water fountain I met a woman from Edmonds! It’s so interesting to find people on the trail that live so close to you at home. I also happened to spent the rest of the day with a man named “Iron Husk” who used to live in Shoreline and now lives in Kirkland and his friend “Flower” who is from Germany.

DB and K really wanted to go to the In & Out that was right off the trail so DB found the number of the Cabazon trail angel who could take us there. Boy. Did he take us there. We met the trail angel “Hillbilly” about 3.8 miles from where we camped under the interstate 10 intersection with the PCT. His trail name was not an inaccurate description. It was so spot on it made me want my own name that much more. But I digress. Hillbilly picked us up in his ’49 Ford and took us first to a grocery store so the other four hikers could get the “date and banana milkshake” and I could stock up on strawberries, cucumbers, carrots and hummus. Naturally.

Next he took us to the In & Out Burger and since I will probably never be back there again I got an order of fries. Being warned by Hillbilly’s warnings of the day’s rising temperatures we took him up on his invitation to stay at his house until later in the day.

Once settled in on the couch, K and I soon realized how strongly Hillbilly felt about blisters being popped before getting soaked in Epson salt. We also all found out just how much of a hospitable character he was. Between watching Mission Impossible 3, Pearl Harbor, and Suicide Squad I was able to wash my sleeping clothes, eat my veggies and learn all about the stuff this gentleman did with his time serving in the Army. Very interesting stuff.

I might also have been given a few trail-name options today. The first that might stick was “Mother Theresa” due to my lack of engaging in anything with alcohol or smoke. I would probably shorten it to “Mother T” since the whole name is pretty long for a trail name. The other options were “Goody Two Shoes” (for the same reason as the previous), “Malibu Barbie” (Hillbilly offered that we watch Moana and I was the only one excited), “Trail Diana” (Hillbilly suggested this one and then shortened it to “T Diana”, and “Veggie” (for obvious reasons). If a better name presents itself yay but I’m okay if Mother T sticks. DB has heard most of the names so he needs to approve that no one else has it.

Finally being able to convince Hillbilly to drive the five of us back to the trailhead we started to hike around 6 pm. It was still ungodly hot. We had originally planned to hike to an area about 10 miles from where we were dropped off but due to the amount of food I ate and the amount of poison my other companions consumed we stopped after about an hour of hiking. Unfortunately, there weren’t really any designated camping spots so we had to make due with what we found. What we found was in the valley in between a windfarm. Needless to say it is windy. Not as windy as that night between Day 2 and 3, but my tent is feeling it. Especially since the ground here is not very stake friendly, I had to do some not very “Leave No Trace” friendly maneuvers and unearth a few large rocks to use instead of stakes. It still feels like someone is shaking my tent on and off every few minutes.

Because of the elongated excursion today we are about a day behind our scheduled arrival in Big Bear City. At 56 ish miles away we will realistically get there on Tuesday. Considering the heat I am okay not doing as long of days as I am used to doing. I would rather live and get to Canada than be dying of heat exhaustion and need to be taken off the trail.

It’s been a weird little section. From Warner Springs until Big Bear. We have stopped so often to eat that my eating schedule is completely off. I’m not very happy about this. I know that with all of the walking I’m doing I need to eat foods but I would honestly rather just eat out of my food bag and continue hiking rather than stay in a town for longer than a couple hours unless I’m sleeping there for the night. Today is one of those days I wish I had my own maps. Big Bear I will download my own and keep my paper maps.

Tonight I listened to a podcast I had downloaded earlier in the day and it was a nice distraction from the wind and windmill farm noises that are coming from the hill next to us.