Day 12- End Of The Alternate

May 14, 2016

Hurkey Creek Campground to Idyllwild- 8 Miles

The campground was loud last night as I expected. I couldn't fall asleep until close to 11 pm. Hawkeye, Evac, and I had already decided to sleep in a little bit, but of course I woke up at 5:15. The great thing about staying in public campgrounds is the facilities. I had access to running potable water, a flush toilet, and a picnic table. All of these contributed to us getting a late start. We didn't start hiking until 7:30. I also think nobody was really excited to walk on the highway again. My feet really start to hurt after walking on the highway, plus it frazzles my nerves. 

Busy highway with no shoulder and blind turns 

Luckily we only had around 2 miles of this today. It was pretty tempting to hitch a ride. After all I didn't come out to here to walk on roads. On their other hand I did begin this adventure with the intention of walking from Mexico to Canada. Sometimes this hiking thing can become morally confusing. Eventually we left the highway and walked on an unpaved road that was closed to traffic. I rather enjoyed this part of the hike. We had great views of the San Bernardino National Forest. 

Evac, Haweye, and M.A.G.A(Make America Great Again)

Due to our late start it was very hot on this section, but we stayed in high spirits because it was town day. Technically it wasn't a nero day, but we did get to town by 10:30. Out first order of business was finding a place to eat breakfast. We had already discussed in depth what we were going to eat. We found a delightful restaurant named Tommy's kitchen which had amazing food. 

After a scrumptious breakfast we fought through our food coma and headed to the local outfitter in search of new gear. 

I was thinking about buying some sun gloves, but they didn't have any in my size. I did find something much better there though. Those of you who followed me last year will remember that I hiked for a while with Outro. She is hiking the pct this year and managed to catch up to me at the outfitters. It was a joyous reunion. 

Reunited and it feels so good

We had a great time reminiscing about old times. Outro is an absolute beast. She started three days behind me and has managed to catch up already. We decided to share a room in town and headed off to find a place. We found a really cute motel near the center of town. By hiker standards it was pretty nice and had a huge shower. I haven't showered in over a week and was beyond filthy. After getting cleaned up we went to the laundromat which was also fantastic. I haven't done proper laundry since the start of the trail. It felt good to be clean and have fresh clothes again. 

After our town chores were complete it was time to eat again. We heard very good things about the local pizza place and made plans to meet up with Hawkeye and Evac. I'm starting to meet a lot of friendly hikers and we had a pretty good group at the restaurant. We all had a great meal and enjoyed a lot of laughs together. We have been passing time on the trail by sharing riddles and we continued that tradition last night. It was fun trying to stump each other. We stayed way past closing time and were up past hiker midnight. I didn't get to sleep until almost midnight. After so many solitary days on the trail it felt good to have such a social evening. 

Evac, Outro, Hawkeye, Jessica, Spaceman, and Warren. 

I decided that it was time for a zero day and Idyllwild is a fantastic place for one. The locals are extremely hiker friendly and we got a great deal on a cabin for tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to relaxing and I'll probably have time to see the new Captain America movie. Right now life is good and I'm exactly where I want to be doing exactly what I was meant to do. 

Live, travel, adventure, bless and don't be sorry.

- Jack Kerouac

*Outro is doing a blog this year, check it out at www.ImOutro.com