Day 12

Day 12

4-30-2014

Miles 137-Paradise Valley Cafe-Idyllwild (Mile 179.4)

-Woke up at 3:00am. 1-Track and I are testing out our friend Magellan's approach to night hiking; instead of hiking from around 6:00pm-2:00am, we are trying going to bed at around 7:00pm, waking up at 3:00am, and hiking until it's too hot to hike. 

-I have 15 miles until I reach Paradise Cafe. Yay! I have 3 miles of tame downhill, followed by a lot of uphill miles. I hope I can knock this out and get to the cafe before it closes at 3:00pm!

-Windy! Windy! Windy! For the love of God where did this wind come from?!?!? It's hard to hike in wind because you can't escape it. I was on ridgelines and mountain passes all day, and incredibly strong gusts of wind were coming at me from every angle, literally. It was a crazy hike but very pretty. 

-I got to Paradise Valley Cafe in the afternoon. My knees were weak and my legs were wobbly. I ate a salad and burger at Paradise Valley Cade... yum!!!!!

-Hitch hiked out of Paradise Valley Cafe due to the trail being closed. A detour hike was available, but the PCTA (Pacific Crest Trail Association) strongly recommended hitching a ride into Idyllwild rather than trying to hike into town. A really nice woman picked me, 1-Track, and another hiker up. We threw our packs in the bed of her truck. While we were driving, my hot pink heart-shaped dry erase board flew out of the truck. We turned around to pick it up, but we couldn't find the heart. I wasn't too concerned with loosing it; but I hated the thought of that heart littering our Mother Nature. When we got to town, I received a text message from my hiking buddy Zog. He decided to walk into Idyllwild and during his walk, my hot pink heart blew right into his face! He recognized the heart and knew it was mine, so he picked up my heart and brought it to me! How sweet! I love how ironic this story is. 

-1-Track and I got into Idyllwild and rented a cabin. The cabin was a walk to the outskirts of town. While we were walking, Tin Man, Magellan, and Jack Rabbit drove by us. They texted me and we shared our cabin with them. It was nice having friends in town with a vehicle... especially since our cabin was so out of the way from town. 

-We were able to do laundry in town while we sipped margaritas from a Mexican restaurant around the corner.