Another bright, sunny morning in paradise! The Apple Valley home of Heinz and Susan Kass has become our place of rest and restoration! I was up early, organizing an order for freeze-dried dinners for myself, Phantom and Good To Go to take us to Canada. Thanks to Creeper back home in NC we have some very favorable discounted pricing, and I appreciate his help getting our order filled and shipped!
Our master plan for the day, as devised and developed by Nitro and her dad Heinz, was for Nitro to shuttle us after her doctor’s appointment back to the Wrightwood area and to run errands and score some great town food! We packed up all our stuff and waited for Nitro to come back from the doctor. Since the doctor’s office was running behind on their appointments it became obvious we weren’t going to have time to slack pack eight miles this afternoon and get our errands accomplished. Time for a revision to the plan! Another night at the Kass residence! Phantom most definitely needed the extra time for foot healing, and I did too for a huge silver dollar-sized blister on the right heel and another similar-sized blister on the right ball of my foot.
Nitro arrived at the house around 12:30 p.m. and off we went in her car. First order of business was burgers and shakes at In And Out, a SoCal chain that makes superior burgers to McDonald’s! From there we drove on I-15 toward L.A. for 30 or 40 miles to an REI. Time for hiker Christmas! I bought new socks, a new t-shirt, some miscellaneous other pack items AND replaced those damned Salomon shoes that have been tearing up my heels since mile 100 when the heel cups wore out and I had to use duct tape to hold them together. REI gave me 100% credit on the original purchase of the Salomons which I applied to the purchase of a pair of Montrail Hardrocks. Good To Go made a complete change of wardrobe, and Phantom and Doodlebug made significant purchases as well.
From REI we walked across the parking lot to Chick-Fil-A! I was sure I wouldn’t find a Chick-Fil-A while on the PCT journey, but opportunity (almost trail magic!) came, and we took advantage! From Chick-Fil-A we drove to Wrightwood and stopped at the P.O. for pickup of additional packages then stopped by the Pines Motel to chat with other thru-hikers in town. We made arrangements with Nightingale and Vin to call them tommorow morning when nearing Wrightwood to pick them up for a shuttle up to the trail so they could join us on the planned eight-mile slackpack back to Wrightwood. From there we drove up to the trail where we dropped off Doodlebug (now 5:30 p.m) so she could begin her solo 27-mile southbound hike back to McDonald’s to catch up on the missed miles when she was sick the other day.
Errands completed, we drove the 60 miles back to Apple Valley where Heinz and Susan had a delicious spaghetti and meatball dinner with garlic bread waiting for us! Since we had already gorged ourselves from earlier visits to In And Out and Chick-Fil-A, we waited awhile and had a couple of beers (forgot we also stopped at Walmart and Albersons on return to Apple Valley). Dinner was leisurely held in the sunroom while watching the final competition of American Idol.
After dinner, I reorganized my bump box and a box to send to my trail angels Ashley and Eric, then joined Nitro and Phantom for a late-night soaking in the outdoor hot tub. It was the perfect zero-mile day with the ultimate trail magic from the Kass family! Though my feet are sore with blister pain, I am excited about the new shoes and hopeful the additional support will allow me to do those 20-mile days with less pain! I’m also thankful we’ll all be caught up tomorrow on miles so we can leave Wrightwood together!
