2018.05.20 - Day #10 - First Zero

I kept the day as a zero, as was planned before. 9 days of hiking in a row surely grants one free day. Even more zeroes might be wise in order to let the feet rest. The bottom of the left foot is still aching. Mikko and Diego are continuing. We got up at usual five and I started to catch up with the blog right away. Mikko and Diego put their stuff together and we took the final photos and said farewells. I doubt I will see Mikko anymore during this hike. He is that much faster.

Mikko and our Taiwanese friend, a duo matched in speed that I cannot do.

Writing from sketchy notes multiple entries in a row does not produce that great text. Not that I am that much of a writer, but also not able to write instantly from days happenings further diminishes the real feeling and details. Let's see if I could write even a little every day. Currently this does not seem to be possible.

In addition to writing, I had a call to mom. I need to do this more. Calls and contact to friends and family. What could be more important? I do not keep my mobile on during the day, so even if I would have reception, zeroes are practically the only moments when I can call. So far at tent sites there has been no reception. Might be because of my crappy mobile subsctiption (freedompop on AT&T network, apparantely Verizon works the best).

A glimpse how it used to be in Idyllwild.

I couldn't decide whether it was worth to climb to Mount San Jacinto the next day. It does not belong to PCT, and would take majority of the day. Because the half promise I made to Hamburger Helper, I decided to do this anyway. What gave further trouble was the resupply package I redirected here. Post office opens at 9am which is very late if you think about hiking. I heard that you can go knock the doors already 7am. Even this is a bit late as one would want to start hiking latest 6am. Finally, I settled on to reclaim the package as I could not be sure if you can redirect it again by calling. Later I learned that with small post offices, this is possible.

I did little else than tinkering with my phone during the day. One of the other things was eating lunch at a Mexican restaurant. The veggie burrito was ok, but as I had destroyed my appetite with too much coffee and a family size pack of Oreos, did not enjoy it that much.

The hotel that I spent this second night in Idyllwild is kind enough to wash one load of laundry, so that was done for me. There was nothing wrong with the hotel, but I felt it was a bit on the expensive side. Especially as I did not utilize it that much. The hiker box at the hotel did not contain much. I tried to take a half box of oatmeal, but was uncarefull and spilled the package to the floor.

Where I spent my first zero night.

I only explored Idyllwild a bit. Seeing other hikers resulted in some chatting, but it would have been nice to hang out with others more. Now my zero was spent writing and giving my feet a day off. Which is good, but still I did not particularly enjoy my stay in Idyllwild. Blame on me, though.