The ADZPCTKO (Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kickoff) started five days after Toots and Tears hit the trail. We drove back to Lake Morena from Julian for a weekend of information and hiker trash.
We set up camp quickly so we could make it to the shelter to watch Condor present his tips for keeping a journal. Entertaining, as was to be expected. Condor was a PCT "thorough-hiker" in 2011 and his journals prove it.
The three of us spent the night walking around with "#2", a hiker from Wisconsin, and found the large Reunion Bonfire and got plenty of tips from tipsy former trailsters. The current thru-hikers were a little more concerned about hydration, and so we turned in early - but not before bumping into Alienmarch again.
Alienmarch thru-hikes the PCT every year on a shoestring budget. When I first met her, she was swapping out the soles from some sandals and putting them into her shoes that she found in a tree! Hardcore. This time, she was trying to get reception for a radio show called Coast to Coast. She walked around with us for a while, a little suprised I was walking around in the "cold" wearing just my shorts and Hawaiian shirt.
Sunday morning I brought Toots and Tears back to the trail and went back to pick up Pukie, Voodoo Cheese, and Condor. Pukie and Voodoo Cheese went back to Scissors Crossing (after treating me to Frosty Burger), and Condor and I headed to Santee near San Diego to rest up for a few busy days.
How I Met Your Mother-style flashback within a flashback: while travelling through Oregon, we stopped in Bend to meet Condor, and he just happened to mention that he had a storage unit in Pasadena with items that he wanted to get to Bend. Well, I drove moving trucks for three years, and had nothing but time, so it made sense to get this taken care of.
We got the rental truck on Monday morning and went to the storage facility, an old building that used to be a bunker during WWII. It even had a freight elevator with only two buttons - up and down - and lines painted on the walls to try to help you line up the elevator when you got to your floor. After only five hours of loading, we had the 16' truck full, and Condor bought us In & Out Burger - the Double-Double animal style with a neapolitan shake!
I dropped off Condor at the airport Tuesday morning and began the drive to Bend. I had assumed about six hours of down time for some sleep on the side of the road, but I'd forgotten a couple things - first, the truck speed limit in California is 55, instead of everyone else's 70. Second - weigh stations. All but one of them were open on my route, and there was NO ONE at the weigh stations. So I plodded along at 3 mph trying not to do anything stupid, and wondering why the weigh stations were open in the first place.
Either of these things - the truck speed limit and the weigh stations - I could have probably ignored. I know most of the big rigs on the highway couldn't care less about the 55 mph postings. However, had I been stopped, I do have a CDL and I really know better...so I played it safe.
I got to Bend at 8 AM Wednesday morning after driving through the night. Condor graciously let me crash on his upstairs bed for three hours while he unloaded the moving truck. At noon, the truck was empty, and I needed to get back to the trail. I drove for five hours to Weed, CA and stayed at the Hi-Lo Motel. I even had my wits about me enough to stop at Weed Brewing and get the girls a growler of ETW, the beer that tastes like a milkshake!
Another day of driving, and I got back to the trail late Thursday night. At least, I think I did. I remember very little of the two nights and one day I was in Idyllwild. Many hikers say that they met me there and I gave them a ride. At first I thought it had to be some other guy with a green Vue with a Skybox and a red Hawaiian shirt. But looking back, I barely remember dropping off Toots and Tears on the trail a couple days later. Other than going for pizza and one or two memories of the cute hotel rooms we stayed in, I remember nothing. I'd been on a three-day bender and I was about to pay the price with a three-day hangover...
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