We were up early again this morning, packing up for a short hike to Hwy 36. Tabasco (Drew) and I were first out of camp and made it to the highway at 7:40am. We immediately stuck our thumbs out to try and get a hitch to the town of Chester, CA, 8 miles away. Traffic into town was sparse. Most vehicles passing by were big rigs or logging trucks, neither of which were going to stop when traveling on a 55mph highway. Happy and Bad Moon soon joined us, then Phantom and Whoop Ass. Once we had six of us there to hitch we put the ladies in charge and Tabasco and I sat back off the road to improve the chances someone would stop. After a few minutes of unsuccessful hitching, Tabasco and I hiked a quarter mile past the others toward town in hopes that splitting up might eventually improve our chances for a hitch. Fifty minutes passed when we could see our friends disappear at the top of the hill where they were hitching.
Just as they drove by and waved, a second vehicle picked the two of us. It was a doctor, a family practicioner, who drove us to the Kopper Kettle where the rest of the gang was dropped off as well. We joined Nick and Emily (also hiking northbound) for breakfast. Nick is from South Carolina (Anderson) and Emily is from Beaverton, OR (small world).
After breakfast our gang of six hiked from motel to motel to find rooms at reasonable rates, finally settling on the Seneca Motel. The proprietors weren’t there and the housekeeper (Sue) informed us that they should be back in 20 minutes. I left my pack with the others and hiked the ½ mile to the library to check out the sign up procedure and decided to take an immediately available half hour to catch up on 36 emails already in the in-box.
When I returned to the motel the gang was still waiting to get a room. Two rooms were secured, one for Bad Moon and Happy, the other for the four of us. As we moved in Tabasco showed up on a bicycle. He had been asking around town about free places to camp and ended up in the bike shop. The bike shop owner told him he could camp in their back yard and gave him a bike with a tote behind so he could cycle over to their house to drop his pack. So off he went on the bike and we ended up with Phantom, Whoop Ass and me with two bedrooms for the night. I spent a good part of the early afternoon in the laundry washing and drying clothes for my amigos, so they could get other errands done.
We made a dash for the library for late afternoon internet time and I made my way to the hardware store for the last available can of denatured alcohol. When I got back to the room Tabasco was waiting on the porch with some Coronas and some limes. We sat on the porch and watched the world go by. Our hiking buddies soon showed up pushing carts with groceries for their resupply. Bad Moon and Happy shared their story of running into Chuck Norris at the grocery store. He and his family live in Chester and are often seen about town, just like the rest of the regular folks.
The evening destination was the local bowling alley in Chester. Tabasco and I walked the three blocks or so to the lanes and made a reservation for 8:30pm. We found the bar and more importantly the shuffle board table where we spent an hour and a half in keen competition. The rest of the gang showed up a little after 8pm and loaded up the jukebox with some great tunes while we got some food at the lanes. Bowling was next. Game one was taken by Bad Moon when I didn’t come through in the 10th frame. Tabasco got hot in game 2 and barely beat me. I still had the highest two game average but no bragging rights. We all had a fantastic time! What a great evening with great friends. Back to the motel we went around 11:30pm and Tabasco rode his Pee Wee Herman bike down the empty highway to his camping spot in a back yard on the other side of town. It’s great to be back on the trail! Today’s weather: sunny, low 55, high 85. Today’s mileage 3.7; cumulative mileage 923.7.
