June 27, 2016

With breakfast burritos on our minds we hit the trail hard. We had a little bit of up and down along the first 3 miles of ridge before we began the 9 mile descent. The sun was just above the horizon during the first 3 miles of descent and we were on the cool shadow side of the ridge. As it rose and we began wrapping around the mountain it got hot. There is no reason to be sweating profusely at 7:30am while going downhill and yet we were. Fortunately the last 3 miles were below tree line and in the shade.

We got to the highway just after 9:30am and began walking the 1.5 miles into town. We made it about half a mile before an older gentleman stopped for us and gave us a lift to the general store. The grill was still warming up for the day and the cool staff had not arrived so the burrito was on hold. Neither of us had eaten since 5:30am in preparation so this was a bit of a setback.

We survived, however, and soon each of us was sitting down to a well-portioned delicious breakfast. Hokey Pokey and Apparition arrived and we pieced it together that we had met them just before the 42 mile dry stretch at the head of the rat pack. Little by little more hikers filtered in. We met the Scottish Bros, two retired Scottish gentlemen, for the first time as well as Zucchini and Philly. Other familiar faces included the young married couple Captain and Legs as well as the group formerly known as the Wolf Pack: Shower, Hot Potato, and Beansy; they were now the Thru Tang Clan.

Next up was taking care of resupplying. Eeyore had sent us a package which was full of food as well as another trail necessity: an inflatable monkey. My pocket knife had also arrived from Piper's Mom in Chester! Rickets was not nearly so lucky. The package that had failed to make it to Chester (even having been sent overnight) had been forwarded here. It had had almost a week to make it just over a hundred miles and instead had spent a few days bouncing back and forth between Sacramento and Redmond and had not arrived. Fortunately the general store was well stocked even if it was a bit pricey.

The general store began closing up and all the hikers began heading up the street to a small lot next to the church where hikers were allowed to camp and hang out. We claimed spots and spent the rest of the evening talking with the others.