Day 19: Town Day Shenanigans!

May 8, Day 19: Mile 256.2-266.1

Miles Hiked: 9.9

Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for my grandparents Lee and Virginia. They accepted the roll as grandparents and embraced it well. Grandpa Lee and Grandma Gin were the best grandparents you could ask for. 

Woke up early, surprise surprise, it was 4:45am, cold and just 10 miles to highway 18 and town day. I packed everything up and was hiking down the trail at 5:20 am. The next 10 miles was a rolly trail with some epic views of the days ahead down in the hot valley.

By 8:45 I was standing at the highway 18 trail crossing, and for my first time on the trail threw my thumb out to hitch hike the 10 miles into town. As my luck had it, this is a very popular hitch hiking spot and the locals know all about the PCT hikers. The first car that went by I threw my thumb up, the car slowed but kept going, then all of a sudden it had turned around and picked me up to take me to the Big Bear Lake Post Office for my second goodie box from Ali, Adam, Goldie and Tim.

My ride into town was with Bill and his son, Bill said that he watches and reads YouTube videos of the PCT and blogs. We chatted about the trail all the way to the Post Office and he dropped me off, I had hit the narrow window of 10am-12pm Post Office hours in Big Bear Lake. Got my goodie box from my friends and was sitting in the adjacent park going through the box, drinking the whiskey and enjoying the amazing paintings my friends had made… but that meant I needed to go back into the post office to mail the paintings home for safe keeping. 

The rest of the hiking group all got hitched into town a couple hours later and soon were eating at Teddys for lunch. A quick stop for beer and a light walk to our Airbnb, showers all around and fresh laundry.

A quick stop at the local brewery for a beer and then we broke off for dinner. Half went for pizza and the other half went to Murrays, a wonderfully amazing dive bar with delicious burgers/sandwiches, cheap beer and karaoke.

Meet: Nathan (Dunkaroo) and Siobhan (Biggie). Aka the Canadians. Two strong hikers and always good for a laugh. Dunkaroo earned his trail name because he dips his hair in all the water sources to cool down.  He’s a nurse in Canada, is carrying probably the heaviest backpack but can out hike the group. Always having a conversation or having Matador ask him irrelevant questions about Canada that is just hilarious.  Biggie is also a nurse in Canada and knows Dunkaroo because they used to work together. She’s another super strong hiker, always good for a laugh and loves her coffee.