I had breakfast at the Airbnb with everyone and hung out for a bit before heading back to town to meet up with Pink Panther and Eden for the 4pm shuttle from the gear snop back to the trail.
Jamie asked me if I happened to know about knee pain. She described her issues and it sounded similar to something I had when running – it wasn’t my knee, it was actually my hip. I suggested some hip stretches and strengthening exercises she could try. I’m not even a PT and it’s funny people keep asking me about PT related things. I probably have more knowledge than the average person though given how many PT appointments I’ve ever been to in my life.
We started walking back to town and we were then picked up during a hitch by a guy named Daniel.
I had lunch at Apple Alley Cafe and ended up talking to the owners for like an hour about the PCT and got a lot of great advice about the trail. Other customers came in and sat down, and I wondered if I was taking too much of their time but they didn’t seem to care at all. They let me fill up my water bottles and use the employee only bathroom.
While waiting at 2 Foot gear shop for the shuttle, we ran into Shawn and more of his ever growing tramily members who told us they got a tramily nickname: “The Circus” because of how large they had gotten. We joked about whether we could be a tramily of only 3 people.
Kira gave Pink Panther, Eden, Michelle and I a ride back to the trail. It was still super hot even at 4pm so we hung out under an overpass next to the trailhead for a little bit until it cooled down. A farmer came by to bring bags of lemons, oranges and grapefruits he said were just falling off his trees and he left them by the water jug cache the trail angels managed. I laughed to myself that I used to be an Assistant Vice President at one of the largest banks on earth and here I am laying on a piece of plastic under a highway overpass, more content than I’ve been in years. How my former coworkers must be thinking I’ve gone off the deep end, but this feels more like real life though than any “per my last email”-ing ever could be.
For a while after I was laid off, I still said “we” when referring to Barclays. But I barely think about it at all anymore. For a long time, I held on to that title as if it meant something about me, but I just feel free now. I’m not my job. I’m just Amelia. I’m just Two Shoes now. I’m much more excited about my future, than I care to hold onto the past.
There were some other hikers huddled under the overpass, waiting out the heat. Some of them were talking about credit cards. I didn’t join the conversation though. Not my world anymore. We finally got up our courage and started walking. Pink Panther and Eden grabbed some beers from the hiker box before leaving. We only hiked about 3 miles to mile marker 79.8 and decided to camp at a spot that nobody was at. I had bought a large pie turnover and so we all had some pie and beers to celebrate (almost) 80 miles.
We decided to cowboy camp and it was actually a great night for it – the campsite was very well sheltered from the wind despite there not being many campsites on basically the side of a desert mountain. Tomorrow is a full moon so the moon is extremely bright tonight too. I saw multiple shooting stars despite the bright light.
Eden wasn’t sold on the campsite and was camped behind a bush, and Pink Panthers and I were cowboy camping next to each other on the other side of the bush. We heard Eden half heartedly complain, “There’s a millipede”.
Before I left for the trail, I took pictures of some of my favorite passages from “A Desert Solitaire” by Edward Abbey. I didn’t want to carry the whole book, but how fitting of a book to read while in the desert. A different desert of course. I read one passage to Pink Panther before bed.
I don’t think I’ve laughed this much yet on the trail, and it feels really nice to hike with other people. Even though I barely know what I’m doing beyond a few days ahead, even though my physical survival is somewhat compromised on a daily basis, even though I have next to nothing. For all the anxiety I used to have at home, I feel quite relaxed here. This is real life.
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