Well I am still being effected by the KO event last weekend. After my first 7 days of hiking, throwing a big halt on the hike to attend the KO and meet everyone else hiking as well, it left me 1.5 days behind the group I had been hiking with. So since Monday morning I have pushed hard and put up 50 miles in 2.25 days, but my feet were feeling it! So after hiking only 10 miles yesterday morning to make it to the Paradise Valley Cafe, a super amazing lady named Annie gave me a ride down to Idyllwild to take the rest of the day off in town. It was an amazing ride with deep conversation, that had us both from tears to smiles within 15 minutes. It made the whole last day and a half of hiking through weather plus the slight pain totally worth it! It was one of those moments you can't even imagine happening until it does...
So I am in IDW to let my feet heal up a bit. No real blisters, just a callous and sore feet. When I got here I actually split a cabin with 2 guys I have hiked with in the past and almost my whole original hiking group, now 2 days ahead of me are here resting as well. So it was awesome to see some of them around town. Last night I went to a small Wine Bar called Idyll Awhile and got fairly buzzed. I met up with Keala from Hawaii and Melissa (the bobcat) and even though we are hikers, being with the two ladies (and being freshly showered and cleaned) led to the locals buying us most our drinks, and Dave the bartender is a beer enthusiast and took me all over the world with beer selections. It was an awesome day just perfect for getting me rested up a bit and recharged before making a 7 day push to Big Bear by next weekend.....
