5/6/2022

I woke, before dawn, and scrambled to the top of a nearby rock pile to take in the view and take my morning piss. I was disappointed in my hydration level this morning. But, I was not disappointed in the glorious sunrise across the valley of Palm Desert. Today was gonna be a good day.

My plan was to quickly get into Idyllwild, have a shower, do some laundry, get a resupply, hitch back to trail and do a few more miles to end the day.
I took a 2 mile side trail to a trailhead parking lot. On my way down I saw NH Pete! My guy.
A few hundred yards from the parking lot I saw a car picking up hitchers. I ran down and tapped on the driver window before he pulled away. “Well the seats are all full,” he informed me. “Well I can squeeze in the trunk if that’s fine,” I wasn’t about to let this hitch pass me by. A key to hitching is having the mindset that there is no better ride than this one.
I tetris’d my body on top of and in between the 4 packs already in the trunk and smiled as the car descended into Idyllwild.
I found a campground with a shower and nearby laundromat. Clean and energized I grabbed my resupply at the local grocer. I was well on my way to grabbing a bite to eat and getting back to trail!
Then I ran into Toby.
He wanted lunch too. He wanted a beer too, two, three.
After that he said, “You know Andrew and Stinger are coming into town tonight. and it’s karaoke night. Mastermind is giving up his tenting spot next to me at the campground so you could stay there.” The beauty of the PCT is how much you have to plan your day, and the beautiful fact that my plans can change the instant I want them to. Looks like I had no choice but to stay the night here.

I ran into Asaf. He was staying in town too. Yes, he also heard about karaoke night. Everyone he knew was going there.
I ran into Andrew and Stinger. Yes, they also wanted to attend karaoke night.
I ran into Henrik. He also wanted to attend karaoke night.
Recruiting was going well.
Then I ran into the mayor of Idyllwild, Max. There has never been a better mayor ever in the history of mayorship.

The recruited group went back to Lumber Mill and had dinner and some beers. We befriended our server Jesus who could turn water into whiskey shots.

Loosened up, Stinger informed me he had never done karaoke. This was unacceptable and I immediately signed us up to sing. A few songs later we walked inside to the karaoke room where no less that 40 PCT hikers had gathered for this monumental night. Our rendition of “Ocean Avenue” by Yellowcard brought the house down.
“Song of the night!”, “You guys can really perform”, “Have you thought about going on tour?” -no one.
To celebrate Asaf, Hobbit (named hobbit because he looked like a hobbit) and I smoked some devil’s lettuce out front.
I danced my way across town back to my tent and fell asleep humming “there’s a place on the corner of cherry street, we would walk on the beach in our bare feet…”