It is early morning. I am lying in bed at Sue and Bill's house and I hear the garbage truck picking up the garbage out on the street. The facts that I have heard it before while lying in this bed and the truck comes but once a week tells me we have been here too long. Old Ben is talking to us.
A huge thank you to Bill and Sue for housing us, feeding us and literally giving us their car for the past two weeks while Sally healed. They have been gracious and giving beyond measure. Sally has been bitten with the Palm Springs bug of wonderful weather, swimming pools, Margaritas and her sister's company. I suspect we will see more of this area in our future.
Sally took a few walks on her tender foot and declared herself ready to soldier forward up the trail. The cortisone shot to the tendon has worked its magic. She is not pain free, but close enough to hike with the hope it will continue to heal as we move forward. As the doctor said yesterday, she won't hurt her foot walking on it, it is a matter of how much pain she wants to endure.
We used Sue's car to hop between grocery stores as we purchased food for this leg of the trip today. I ate the original resupply on my recent hike from mile 370 to 456. Our meals won't be quite so organized and diverse but they will see us through to Big Bear and our next resupply. We will spend the next few days climbing from 3000' to 8000' as we enter the San Gorgonio mountains north of Palm Springs. It is about 45 trail miles (mile 226 to 266 plus some change getting us back on the PCT) from our entry point at Mission Creek Preserve to Big Bear City, so we are taking five days of food.
We have stayed in contact with many of the kids we have hiked with over the weeks. Far out is about 100 miles ahead of us, just about to reach Wrightwood. Crotalus is a little behind Far Out. Her ankles have reached a level of pain that has halted even her, so she is resting at Cajon Pass on Interstate 15, hoping the pain subsides. Horizon and Backup will finally enter into virgin territory tomorrow. Backup had hiked to Wrightwood in her PCT attempt in 2012, but had to fold due to injuries. They are now in Wrightwood, and will be hiking the section I hiked earlier in the week. Roy and Sarah-with the way they move they might be to Canada already! Seriously, Sarah is a lithe hiking machine so they could be miles ahead. I left the three Amigos (Zissou, Lee & Jolly) along with Hemlock and Whitewater at Hiker Heaven so I suspect they are at about mile 500 today, just about to enter the Mojave Desert portion of the trail. Last I heard from Coyote she was leaving Big Bear three days ago, so she is somewhere between there and Wrightwood.
Most likely we will not see them on the trail again. There are too many miles between us and them. But we are looking forward to meeting new hikers as we enter the culture of the trail again tomorrow.
We took our last swim in the pool in the late evening, then visited with Sue and Bill before calling it a day - our last day in Palm Springs.
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