6/13/2023
Section: Milepost 369.3 to 374.0
Distance: 4.54 Miles
Moving Time: 01:48 hrs
Elevation Gain: 455 ft
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For the first time our day off was a bit more relaxing. After the brewpub the night before we had run into some of the Ride Brides as well as Charlie and a few others at the local pizza place and talked well into the night so, this morning, we slept in…till about 7. At around 8 we went to the local favorite breakfast place - The Grizzly Cafe. …A lot of Grizzly Bear references for a state that hasn’t had grizzly bears in it for over 100 years. Anyway, breakfast was delightful. Amanda had what she called the best French Toast she had had on the trip so far and I had some excellent country fried steak and a side of pancakes. I did pretty good work on both, if I do say so myself.
After breakfast we did some errands. We first stopped at the local hardware store which had lots of hiking supplies inside. We spent over 35 dollars on snacks and meals so they threw in a 1 cent gas canister which was a great bonus. Then we headed to Jensen’s Foods which, to date, has to be one of the best grocery stores for hikers we have been in since this adventure began. So many hiker friendly meals. Between the hardware store and the grocery store, Wrightwood is a standout stop along the PCT. I still think Julien is my favorite stop so far, but Wrightwood is right on its heels.
With reloaded stocks we headed back to the hotel. I gave my mom a call to coordinate the two specialized shipments we have coming up at the beginning of July. Snow equipment to Kennedy Meadows and our remote bucket resupply at Muir Trail Camp. Once that was worked out, we finished packing our bags and left the hotel. I went back down to the hardware store because I had heard they would replace Darn Tough socks if yours had holes in them and mine did. They were happy to do so for me but, regrettably, I seem to have the same size foot as every male on the trail so there were no more socks in stock for me. I took my socks back and went to rejoin Amanda who had gone out to find more postcards. We rejoined at the Village Grind Cafe where, surprise, surprise, we ran into John from Eugene again. We sat together at a table where I got a beer and Amanda got a smoothie and we both ordered cheese sandwiches. We talked for an hour during which I scheduled a ride with Dale back up the hill and at around 1:30 we split up, saying we would surely run into John again.
We headed to the post office and dropped off some cards before heading to the Hardware store where we waited for Dale. While there we ran into Jason and Lorena as well as some of the Ride Brides and PHILLIPP! We chatted for a while to catch up but Dale showed up at 2 and we bid adieu to meet him.
Dale took us back up to the trailhead at mile 369 and we got out and gave him 10 dollars. He stayed a while to see if any hikers we going up the hill the other direction needing a ride down and we did our warm-ups. After about 10 minutes Dale headed back down the road and we headed up the trail.
We walked for an hour and a half while the path ran parallel to highway 2 towards Baden Powel. After a set of many switchbacks we were delivered to the road where we took a seat and debated our next move. As we arrived Anna, from New York, arrived hiking SOBO with her 72 year old mom who’s trail name was Sunshine and was from Spokane. The two were going to stay at the trailhead. The road was closed so no cars were going by and the trailhead was strangely quiet, making for a perfect camping spot. We decided to stay with them and pitched our tent near theirs on a gravel road behind the trailhead.
We made dinner with them that night and talked for a long time. Sunshine had been working on the PCT since the 1960’s, before it was even official, and had about 2200 miles done and was trying to finish the section she hadn’t done yet and Anna was completing the section from Kennedy Meadows down to Campo. We talked until we were too cold and then retired to our tents wishing each other a good night and best of luck going forward.
