Distance hiked today: 2.2 miles / 3.5 km
A Nero day! The beds in our cabin were so soft. We said farewell to Dr. P who only had a month off work and had to get off trail - he will be missed. Then I had my second shower in 12 hours, and did my town chores.
Wrightwood is the most hiker-friendly town so far, even though they all have been. I grabbed a coffee at a small coffee shop, and they gave it for free because I was a hiker, along with a small PCT patch. At the grocery store, they have bins of free snacks for hikers. Many of the motels give hikers discounts, and the restaurant staff are extremely friendly.
I picked up my resupply box from the Mountain Hardware store, an actual hardware store in town that stocks anything you'd need, hiker or handyman/woman. This is the most hiker-friendly place of all, with an area on the back porch for hikers to leave their bags, hang out, charge, and dig in hiker boxes. They have a sign-in book and give out PCT pins which we all proudly wear on our hats, they sell Leukotape off the roll by the foot (for blisters) which we wrap around a trekking pole, and have an entire system for organizing hiker packages that we can ship there for them to hold.
With leftover food from the last resupply, food shipped from home, and planning to hitch into Acton in 5-ish days for groceries, I didn't need to buy any food. I gave away some freeze-dried meals and some breakfast chia seed puddings I made at home because I just had too much - I've been hiking more miles than anticipated so there are fewer days between towns. But I still managed to pack out a beer that I didn't drink last night.
We hung out behind the store until around 4pm, then got a hitch back to the trail along the highway. We hiked just over 2 miles to a nice camp with tables, really just to get back on trail and save on hotel costs. I enjoyed my chocolate & coffee porter with dinner. I was planning on cowboy camping but the clouds rolled into the camp - we were in them, and it was humid and cold at a higher elevation than before. So I set up my tent, and it felt nice to have my little home over my head again.
Total trail mileage: 371.5 miles / 597.7 km
