My day started off interesting.
I was making chilaquiles for Dino, Eva, Swiss Cheese, Nonny, and MC Rob. I met Dino and MC last night; Eva and Swiss Cheese I met at Kennedy Meadows. While making the food, some hiker comes into the kitchen, while lots of people are sleeping in, and starts talking loudly. We get him to quiet down a little but he’s so wrapped up in himself.
He asks us all our names. When he gets to me he says “oh I like to sing too!” then proceeds to sing an entire Led Zeppelin ballad loudly. We tried to clap to get him to stop, I even said “hey people are sleeping” and his response was “well it’s time for them to get up.”
Then he said his Instagram handle and left.
What. The. F?
Spirit came into the kitchen later and added to the weirdness. He was watching my cooking over my shoulder like a dog begging for scraps. I offered him leftovers, if there would be any, and he said no. Later, he had made some six-egg scramble with an obscene amount of cheese and showed it to me saying “see I got breakfast.”
Just so weird.
After that we went to the coffee shop attached to the church. They give free coffee to PCT hikers. I ordered a chai latte with almond milk, because that was the only non dairy milk they have. They made it very clear they don’t support soy milk there, which was weird. Instead of a chai, they gave me the worst tasting regular latte I’ve ever had.
There was a nice bunch of fruit on the table. We sat around eating it and chatting. While we were chatting, the barista, an older lady, brought out a book with photos of her and a bunch of people in covered wagons with “Vision Quest” emblazoned on the sides. She was bragging about how she participated in this outdoor wagon train for “troubled youth” in the 80s. These programs are well known to be rife with child abuse and this particular one also appropriated First Nations’ customs. It was weird and made us all uncomfortable. She also bragged about how she was fond of the “one black kid” in the group and then said some really racist terms about him, most about how she “affectionately called him” those names.
Then she turned to Nonny, the only black person in the group, and asked if that was okay. Having stayed there for free and gotten free, albeit terrible, coffee, and also with societal pressure, she froze and was super gentle. The lady deserved to be admonished to the nth degree and we were just too shell shocked to respond properly.
When she asked us our names and she got to me, she asked if the kind of entertainment I did was stripping.
Just. Freaking. Weird. And super inappropriate. I hated being there.
It was time for chores. I didn’t have much laundry to do, so I offered space with Nonny, Eva, and Swiss Cheese. They all had only a few things that needed washing. Dino had a load to do, as well. We walked down to the laundromat. Snow Leopard was there and offered Dino space in his washer.
While that processed we went to McDonald’s for food and conversation. After that it was to a sporting goods store and I bought some picaridin location to repel mosquitoes and biting flies.
We headed back to the laundromat to throw things in the dryer, then wandered a bit more. When the timers went off for the dryers we headed back to the laundromat, got our clothes, then went to sort it out at the church.
After that I decided to go to the coffee shop down the street. It was nice to have a good coffee and a little WiFi. The WiFi was great because service in the town was terrible. I was able to catch up with Beth. Then I went to the Chinese restaurant and ordered some chow mein and egg fu young. I brought it back to the church and started eating. It was only okay, at best.
Dino, Swiss Cheese, and Eva came over to talk. Their friend Puddles had access to a trail angel’s car and wanted to help us out by slackpacking us the following day. Slackpacking is where someone takes your pack for you while you hike — so we would hike without the weight of our packs until the destination when they’d be delivered to us. We started working out the logistics for that. Nonny was fast asleep early, so I said I’d fill her in, in the morning.
After that I got ready for bed and knocked out. It was a nice zero.