Day 16 | mile 266.1 - 289.9

I kept having dreams about my ankles breaking and i kept waking up to check them. All good.

Got to sleep in today! I woke up at 6 to the sun streaming in the window and snoozed a little more. Got up at 7. We all went to Big Bear Diner (not sure about the name) for breakfast.

I totally could’ve cooked oatmeal, but everyone was going out and I really wanted eggs. I got 2 eggs, potatoes with bell peppers and onions, sausage and toast. $15. It was Fern, Pending, Tommy Pickles (Annah), and Afghan. Party Hal joined us toward the end. He got 4 eggs and I was jealous.

Back at the hostel at 8:30. Annah had decided to stay another night because of her knee. Such a bummer. I know how much she wants to keep going, but this is definitely the smart choice. And she’s a smart lady.

I was itching to get going. Afghan, Fern and I were going back to the trail. We stopped at the CVS first. Afghan needed a knee brace, and Pickles was getting more food. I stole a loose envelope from the greeting cards section. It was an extra one, not attached to a card.

Pending drove us to the trail. We met Vinyl’s dad in his colorful van. He was very chatty, and I was very anxious to go go go.

Finally took off around 11. Ran into Hannah (who we hadn’t seen this Idyllwild). I was a few minutes ahead of the crew and ended up waking 0.5 mile into a fire closure. Finally turned around when I realized there were no footprints. 

Came back and we tried to find the reroute. There were no clear signs, and we ended up taking the wrong turn and having to just scale a hill to get back on trail. The reroute was basically two Jeep roads which pissed me off because there were so many loose rocks. It was ankle-twist-central. I kinda took off because I was mad about the shitty trail and just wanted to get back to the PCT as soon as possible. That’s when I lost the girls.

I knew they wanted to take it easy and only do 7-8 miles today. And my legs were itching to hike.

It was such a relief to get back to the PCT. It was a 23 mile water carry and my pack was heavy with resupply food, but the trail was easy today. Nothing steep. Beautiful views of Big Bear Lake. Perfect weather.

Alex texted me saying the InReach wasn’t tracking. I spent 3 hours trying to figure out what was going on. While hiking, of course. Still don’t know what the problem was, but a restart fixed it.

Started Ready Player One!

 I was a little anxious about water, but I ended up having plenty to dry camp.

I was really hoping to find someone to camp with tonight. I was passing all these empty campsites. Finally, I told myself I’m stopping at the next one regardless. And sure enough, there was a crew there. I camped with them! Sunny, Little Bite, Strider, and Mayo. Sunny and Little Bite are engaged and they are from Vermont. Mayo is from CA (Folsom area). Strider is from LA.

I made Annie’s white cheddar Mac and cheese. It took a while to boil. Makes me nervous about whether my fuel is going to last. I ate and watched the beautiful sunset.

Everyone was in bed by 8. I’m cowboy camping! Going to massage my feet, and pass out.

Oh! I finally put the quilt straps on my sleeping pad. Excited to try them out.