Day 6: “Oh good you’re awake...”

April 25, Day 6: Julian town day

Miles hiked: 0

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for the kindness of strangers.

“Oh good you’re awake, I need to talk to someone” is not what you want to hear at 5:30 in the morning as you’re crawling back into your sleeping bag after using the local public restroom on a cold morning.

This was what started my first “zero” of the PCT.  This poor young hiker girl, according to the story, had ripped her shorts, didn’t have thermal long Johns and had gotten rid of her rain pants because “they were too big” was now sitting on the bench of the Julian back patio deck where I’d chosen to cowboy camp telling me about the woes of her last several hours. She had had a panic attack at her camp in Mt Laguna, told her hiking group about it, and then decided to leave, which she ended up knocking on a car window of a person who was passed out along the highway to ask for a “hitch” into Julian at 2:30am. 

So by the time I woke up to relieve myself, I’m sure she was ready to express her emotions to the guy sleeping on the back deck of the local market.  So... after hearing “oh good you’re awake, I need to talk to someone” what does one do.... I just asked her if she was ok. That is when she spent 25 minutes telling me about her ordeal.  I didn’t have many words of comfort or encouragement at 5:30 in the morning. I just felt the best I could do was listen and let her vent her frustrations.  After a bit, she decided to go charge her phone, and I curled back into my down quilt and when I woke a couple hours later she had gone. This was how my first “zero” started off... being an emotional ear for another hiker who had a bad night.

The rest of the day consisted of a huge breakfast, getting the free PCT hiker pie from Mom’s Pie Co, not being a huge dessert fan it wasn’t that big of deal for me but honestly it was delicious. I checked into my hotel for the night, took another long shower which was wonderful. And finished the night at the local brewery with several other hikers talking about our first couple days of trail experience and about our gear we all were struggling to get to work or line out properly. Tonight I’m sleeping in a bed, I have a flushable toilet and a hot shower waiting for me in the morning. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain/snow on the trail and since I already have the hotel booked I won’t start back on the trail until Tuesday. Tomorrow is hiker chores.  Even with an early morning therapy session, today was a wonderful day.