Mile 77: free pie!

4/28/2010
9 miles in 3.25 hours of actual hiking
Fun of the day: pie!

This morning started off terribly. Carmen and I already can't sleep because our Z-shite foam pads only allow us to sleep on our backs: the snoring position. It was super windy last night, so Carmen hardly got an hour of sleep, I got a little more thanks to my handy earplugs. When my alarm went off at 5:30, we were both already awake, but had no desire to get out of our sleeping bags. We stalled, see illustration number 1: Bear safety- eating in the tent.

When we finally got out of the tent, it immediately flew away. Carmen was already up atthe main camp, filling water bottles. I let out a strangled gurgle of an animal scream, and went tearing through the spiky brush after it. The tent and seven of the eight stakes were recovered, thanks to Carmen's patience and perseverence, but the adrenaline rush left me exhausted and out of it for the rest of the day.

We hiked downhill all day, the knees were not happy. We learned that Mom's Pie Shop in Julian gave free (whole) pies to thru-hikers with PCT permits, so I begged, pleaded, and pouted until Carmen agreed to try the hard hitch there. Right at the previously agreed "give up" time, a little red car with a little old man and two hiker buds inside pulled over. We had our packs in our laps and no view of the very curvy road, but we got to the pie-obsessed town of Julian and gorged ourselves on delicious apple-boysenberry and strawberry-rhubarb pie. It took more debate, searching, armtwisting, and haggling, but we found a hotel that hooked us up well: four beds for under $20/person, AND free laundry AND space to examine and mend the tent. So we sat around in towels as we waited for laundry, and everyone but me went to bed at the unreasonably late hour of 8:45. I was suergluing, sewing, and supergluing some more until 1 am.

- Typoed on my iPhone