May 13, 2017
Tule Springs to Paradise Cafe
Paradise Cafe to the mountaintop before Idyllwild
Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hike: Day 9

Sleeping alone was peaceful. No rush in the morning. I was cooking and the boys (Cake, Colten, Sam, Alex) caught up at Walden. It was great to see them, it's uplifting anytime I see friends or familiar faces on trail. Like I'm not alone out here, and I have a team, and we're doing this together.

I spoiled my appetite for Paradise Cafe with hot dogs wrapped in pancakes topped with mustard and syrup. A family who want to be future PCT thru-hikers had trail magic today: pancakes in the morning, hot dogs in the afternoon. I came at the lucky in-between and made a glorious combination meal of both. Brunch trail magic.

After brunch trail magic we got a hitch to the cafe in the back of a pickup truck. I had a hamburger that was clearly from some kind of pre-formed meat patty. It could be my irrationally high expectations, it could be the pancake-wrapped hot dogs, and it could be the fact that I didn't stick to salad and a good sandwich, but the meal I had left me with nothing but regrets.

I hiked my regrets off by leading the boys for the next 10 miles, up a mountain to a ridge just before Idyllwild. We were jumping over boulders, up and up, over really hard terrain, and I stayed in the lead. I felt really proud. The mountain ridge we all ended up camping at had magical tree protection and plenty of friends—Cake, Flame, Sam, Alex, Matt, Just Paul, to name a few of my growing group that is starting to feel like family.