Ah, trail towns. Nothing like them.
We (Good To Go, Phantom, and me) got up this morning early and walked to the golf shop grille for breakfast. I had a delicious Florentine omelet (yum!) and some juice. I wanted to be ready for the mini-mart to open at 8am to purchase laundry detergent and to get a jump on the one washer/dryer available at the resort. So at just after 8 I got our skanky, odiferous, fermenting clothes in the washer and rook some time to catch up on journaling. By the time I had our freshly washed clothes in the dryer, a section hiker (Dan) and Fancy and The Kid (of The Family) and Jeanette and Vin were all in line waiting for use of the laundry facility.
We had found our old friend Seattle Mike leaving town for the trail when we walked back to the Ranch from breakfast…Mike decided to stay in town an extra day to party with us. When I got back to the room with our new, clean laundry, Phantom was sleeping and Good To Go was our retracing his steps down the highway in search of his lost camera. Unfortunately he never found it.
Phantom got up, we then proceeded to the post office to retrieve food and packages. We spent the balance of the morning running errands, hop-scotching around between the P.O., the mini-mart, and the lodge. We were back at the grille for lunch, with Mike joining us. His new trail name is Mikey Mouse…here’s the story. Mike camped alone on the side of the San Felipe Hills a couple of nights ago in a wash (an area where the canyon walls come together and rain runoff washes out a narrow flat area). A mouse decided to join him in his sleeping bag and traveled there for a full day’s hike without Mike knowing the little guy was in there. When he climbed in the bag to go to sleep the next night, he felt with his toes something at the end of the bag. It was the mouse, suffocated unfortunately, and very dead. Thus Seattle Mike has been renamed Mike Mouse.
After lunch we completed our errands, had a few beers in the cabin, then walked over to the extra large pools that have natural hot mineral springs water piped in from up the mountain. We floated in the pools for an hour, relaxing and thoroughly spoiling ourselves. Since it was Phantom’s birthday AND Cinco De Mayo, we planned for dinner and cocktails at the Cantina in the lodge. My foot was very swollen so I walked over to the mini-mart to get some more Ibuprofen and ended up talking to the cashiers at the register, who gladly offered to help me search for podiatrists in nearby towns via the phonebook. The nearest town with podiatrists is Temeculah, a 40 mile drive or hitch.
The gals in the mini-mart agreed that it would be much better for me to get to a podiatrist from Warner Springs than to wait until hiking in to Idyllwild. They listed four podiatrists with telephone numbers and addresses in Temeculah. I went back to our cabin and iced the foot and spent some time debating about what to do. I finally decided that it would be worthwhile to go for it and try to find a ride or hitchhike to Temeculah.
Our trail buddies Debi (Ladyface), John (Grilled Cheese), Roger (That Guy/Psycho), B.S., Jessica, and Teapot had arrives in Warner Springs from the trail! The gals told me the section hikers from Arizona (Troy) and his uncle John were in town and had driven them to Temeculah earlier in the afternoon for shoes and that they might be willing to take me into town. So Debi walked with me to find John and Troy and introduced me to them. They willingly agreed to meet me tomorrow morning at 9am to drive me the 40 miles into Temeculah to see a podiatrist.
With a plan in place, I felt a ton of relief and was able to enjoy the evening activities. We had quite a group at the Cantina for dinner and drinks. The highlight of the evening was the celebration of Phantom’s birthday with a homemade cake that Mikey Mouse arranged with the resort’s chef, and some honorary toasts and tequila shots for the gang of four! Rather than closing the place down, the thru-hiker contingent abandoned the cantina for the natural hot springs evening style. The water felt fantastic. I spent some time while in the springs talking with Teapot who hiked the A.T. in 2002 then worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club was a winter caretaker at the Carter and Zealand huts in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This June she will be an instructor with an outdoor expedition company in British Columbia.
It was a great zero mile trail town day except for the continuing pain and swollen left foot, but I am hopeful that tomorrow will bring some good news and a solution to the problem. It’s great to be in Warner Springs.
