Daily Miles: 0.8
Total Miles: 93.5
Town today!!! I don't feel as removed from society as I will a few weeks from now, but the anticipation of getting into town was running high. I was gonna sleep in a bit, but I was up by about 7:30 (the hiker alarm clock is kicking in already) and out by the road to start trying to hitch into town. I made sure to hike the .8 miles of trail from the campground to the road even though though there was access to the road from the campground. This way I can call today a Nero (near zero miles hiked) instead of a Zero (zero miles hiked). There were 3 other hikers out by the road with me everybody thumbs out ready to go.
For my friends who are non-long distance hikers, the idea of hitch-hiking is a scary concept. I have now hitched probably about 50 times in my life and can say I have never had a bad experience. There were 1-2 times I got out of the vehicle at the end and I felt a little uneasy, but the best idea is to listen to your gut when somebody pulls over to give you a ride. If it doesn't feel right, don't do it. The other rule is to make sure you have anything of value on you and not in your pack, and to make sure you get in with your pack, don't put your pack in first. For me, hitch-hiking can be a really rewarding experience because you get to meet so many different kinds of people with so many stories to tell. Also, you need to be ready to talk and listen. These people picking you up all have a story, and they all want to hear about your story and what you are doing. The good thing about hitching around these long distance hiking trails is that everybody who lives in the neighboring towns know the season that hikers come through and are generally interested in what you are doing and want to help you as much as they can. I have never waited more than about a half hour for a hitch into any town as a result.
We knew with 4 of us we might not all go together, so the rule of thumb is whoever was there first took the first ride in. I was third, so I figured I might have to wait a bit. About 20 cars in though an SUV pulled over and said he could fit all 4 of us in!!! The driver's name was Victor, and he was a firefighter who had previously been a forest firefighter. He made the commute from Ridgecrest to Bakersfield a couple times a week. He crammed us all in (moving child car seats into the trunk) and we got to listen to some amazing stories from him about the Hot Shot firefighting crew he had been on and how he travelled all around the country fighting forest fires. The 33 miles into Lake Isabella is one of the longest hitches I have ever had but it went by so fast talking with Victor.
We got into town about 9:30 and he dropped us off at the Vons Supermarket. There was no way to get a hotel till later, so I figured I would get my resupply done first, and grab some lunch then head over to the Lake Isabella Motel. Groceries were easy as I expect only 3 days of hiking to Kennedy Meadows, and lunch was at the Pizza Factory - $9 All you can eat pizza, salad, soup, and drink!!! Bam!!!
With all that taken care of I headed to the Lake Isabella Motel and got a room for $75, and for an extra $6 paid for them to do all my laundry for me (very worth it). Farther up the trail I expect to share some rooms with other hikers, but I hadn't really made those connections yet, so decided to get a room all to myself. One of the cool things about this motel was that I was in room #14, and a lot of these small older motels don't have a room #13 as it is considered unlucky.
So by dinnertime I had gotten all the essentials down - shower, laundry, and resupply. I also stopped by true value and got 2 extra tent stakes in case the wind was still kicking when I went back out and a new pair of cheap sunglasses. I have a bad history of breaking sunglasses or losing them and the pair I started with lasted 2 days before breaking. I think I went through 8 pairs on the Appalachian Trail.
For dinner I headed down to the most reccommended eatery in Lake Isabella: Nelda's Diner. They had almost 100 different combinations of shakes and a 2/3 lb. burger. They were both Amazing!!! I can't remember the name of it, but the shake I got was a combination of strawberry cheesecake, cookies and cream, and black cherry. As a bartender I hate making shakes, but thats what this place was famous for so I had to try one.
As I was finishing a group of about 7 hikers showed up and I went over and sat with them and had a great conversation about hiking. There were two gentlemen getting on the trail the next day - one from Switzerland, one Canadian young lady, and four other americans - three of which were related and were hiking together. Midway through their meal, the owner came over and checked on us to make sure everything was great, and he sat down and chatted with us for about 15 minutes. It's great to see owners of these small businesses taking time to talk to his clientel, especially those of us that are coming through for only a small stay and most likely will never be back in the area. I can't reccommend Nelda's enough if you are ever in this area.
By this time it was getting dark (hiker midnight), so we headed back to the Motel. Ideally I would like to get out to the trail as early as possible tomorrow. There are buses that will run back up to Walker Pass, and they only run on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The first one is at 5:15AM which would mean being up by 4:30. The next one is at 12:45, so that might be the more likely option and still get about 10 miles in tomorrow. Great town visit though, Lake Isabella rocks!!!!
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