Day Five: Tehachapi (Another Rest Day)

I’m digging deep into the crevices of my brain to remember exactly what happened over the past six or so days, so forgive me for few details. We woke up to unfavorable weather; we’re talking fog that barely allowed us to see a block ahead, plus drizzling rain and chilliness. We trekked out to the Pilot’s Lounge where we were greeted by the hikers, and everyone shared multiple cups of Keurig coffee and procrastinated their departures. After talking amongst ourselves about whether or not the weather would clear up, we noticed it was only getting worse, so we decided to take a rest day. We rode our bikes to Kohnen’s Country Bakery, a local German bakery with all the goodies our hearts desired, and we chatted with more through-hikers while we nommed on monstrous sandwiches and an apple danish that could be the culprit of blocked arteries somewhere down the road. Totally worth it, though.

After heading back to the airport and spending a couple more hours in the warmth of the lounge, we made one last trip back to K-Mart to stock up on groceries to make dinner for all of our new hiker buddies. In case anyone is wondering, dinners from K-Mart aren’t the fanciest. We ended up with four boxes of pasta, some broccoli, and bagged salad for munchin’. When we returned, an anonymous woman had already dropped off a giant pot of chicken dumpling soup (seriously, like four gallons of it)—so we sat there wondering what we were going to do with about 25 servings’ worth of fettuccini alfredo. Luckily, we were surrounded by a whole lot of smelly men who enjoy eating (and myself, who also enjoys eating), so we cooked dinner number two. Our friend Banjo, a British hiker, contributed a boatload of bacon and onions to the alfredo sauce; and Kilty, a guy who hikes in a Utilikilt (Google it), apparently packs a pound of garlic everywhere he goes, so we added that, too. We smelled fabulous.

We ended the night by sharing less-than-quality shots of whiskey with DuPont, Llama, and Courage (a hiker who traveled from Japan to take a chance at the PCT), and then dozed off to Shawshank Redemption before going back to the tent.