Zero in South Lake Tahoe
After I woke up this morning, I stayed in my top bunk, working on transferring my journal entries to the blog. I had less of them to do than last time, but there were still quite a few days to add. After it seemed like most of my roommates had gotten up themselves, I headed to the common room to finish the last couple days of blogs while hanging out on one of the couches.
As I entered the common room, I bumped into Pullout. So, there actually were hikers I knew here the whole time. He was sharing a room with Dragonfly and Spice Merchant. The reason I had not seen them the night before was that they had gone to the movie theater across the street and seen two movies last night. They were going to see another one today. I was invited to join them, but I still had another blog entry to do, I needed to hit the grocery store again, and I had some gear repair.
When I finished the last blog entry, I went to go do laundry. Unfortunately, guest laundry wasn't available until 6 pm, so I had to continue walking around town in dirty clothes. I had some food left over from my food shopping spree the previous night, so I ate that for lunch, then headed to Raleys for my food resupply.
I filled my basket with mostly junk food, a couple of meals, some peanut butter, and headed to the check out. The lady ringing me up could tell that I was hiking. When she found out I was a PCT thru-hiker she got really excited and told me she admired me for what I was doing. Things like that are always wonderful to hear, especially when, in my head, I think everyone hates me for being dirty and smelly.
I brought my food back to the hostel and bumped into Dodger. She had arrived in town last night, but had camped at the RV park with the Swiss guys (who were also with me on Mt. Whitney), Flame and Hatchapi (Dom's trail name). It was the weekend, and there was a concert in town, so all the bunks where full for the night. They, along with the other thru-hikers I knew, had paid for the ability to camp on property. I'm really glad I had asked for a bunk for two nights when I checked in because the hostel also ran out of camping space and had to turn a couple hikers away.
I went back to my dorm, repackaged my food so that it would fit in my food bag, fixed my gear, then went back to the common room to hang out until guest laundry would become available. There was a large line for laundry forming so a couple of us worked together to put our laundry together and split a load.
While I was waiting for my laundry to finish, I learned that Base Camp Pizza, a restaurant across the street offered a free personal pizza to PCT hikers when they showed their permits. I made plans to eat there with Dodger, Hatachpi, and Flame when my laundry was finished. In the meantime, I wanted to get my transportation to the trail figured out for tomorrow.
On the wall of the computer room was a list of phone numbers for trail angels who would offer to give rides to hikers if they were available. I texted a couple of the numbers, folded my laundry, and headed out to dinner. It was a popular place and took an hour to get a table, but, hey, free pizza.
After dinner, I swung by the common room of the hostel. Spice Merchant had downloaded the first two episode of the new season of Game of Thrones and was playing them on a projector in the common room. It had drawn a large crowd of people and everyone was watching the show, enraptured. I joined in and made it halfway through the second episode before I became too tired and had to go to bed.
As I entered the common room, I bumped into Pullout. So, there actually were hikers I knew here the whole time. He was sharing a room with Dragonfly and Spice Merchant. The reason I had not seen them the night before was that they had gone to the movie theater across the street and seen two movies last night. They were going to see another one today. I was invited to join them, but I still had another blog entry to do, I needed to hit the grocery store again, and I had some gear repair.
When I finished the last blog entry, I went to go do laundry. Unfortunately, guest laundry wasn't available until 6 pm, so I had to continue walking around town in dirty clothes. I had some food left over from my food shopping spree the previous night, so I ate that for lunch, then headed to Raleys for my food resupply.
I filled my basket with mostly junk food, a couple of meals, some peanut butter, and headed to the check out. The lady ringing me up could tell that I was hiking. When she found out I was a PCT thru-hiker she got really excited and told me she admired me for what I was doing. Things like that are always wonderful to hear, especially when, in my head, I think everyone hates me for being dirty and smelly.
I brought my food back to the hostel and bumped into Dodger. She had arrived in town last night, but had camped at the RV park with the Swiss guys (who were also with me on Mt. Whitney), Flame and Hatchapi (Dom's trail name). It was the weekend, and there was a concert in town, so all the bunks where full for the night. They, along with the other thru-hikers I knew, had paid for the ability to camp on property. I'm really glad I had asked for a bunk for two nights when I checked in because the hostel also ran out of camping space and had to turn a couple hikers away.
I went back to my dorm, repackaged my food so that it would fit in my food bag, fixed my gear, then went back to the common room to hang out until guest laundry would become available. There was a large line for laundry forming so a couple of us worked together to put our laundry together and split a load.
While I was waiting for my laundry to finish, I learned that Base Camp Pizza, a restaurant across the street offered a free personal pizza to PCT hikers when they showed their permits. I made plans to eat there with Dodger, Hatachpi, and Flame when my laundry was finished. In the meantime, I wanted to get my transportation to the trail figured out for tomorrow.
On the wall of the computer room was a list of phone numbers for trail angels who would offer to give rides to hikers if they were available. I texted a couple of the numbers, folded my laundry, and headed out to dinner. It was a popular place and took an hour to get a table, but, hey, free pizza.
After dinner, I swung by the common room of the hostel. Spice Merchant had downloaded the first two episode of the new season of Game of Thrones and was playing them on a projector in the common room. It had drawn a large crowd of people and everyone was watching the show, enraptured. I joined in and made it halfway through the second episode before I became too tired and had to go to bed.
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