Day 12: Our First “Zero” – Idyllic Idyllwild
Date: Sun 4/29
PCT Start Mile: NA
PCT End Mile: NA
PCT Mileage for Day: 0
Off-Trail Hike Mileage: ~4 mi
Total PCT Mileage: 168.6
Total Overall Mileage: 185.04
The Highlights:fantastic rest day with fantastic friends
No alarms went off but my eyes shot open at 5:30am. Sun was up, time to get up. But I was camped out on a comfortable couch, in a living room, and we had nowhere to go today. It was our first “zero”.
A “zero” is a day where you do NO hiking –zero. People typically take their zeros in town, though you could take them on the trail if you’d planned an extra day of food. While the idea is rest and recovery, you still end up doing quite a bit of walking to get some errands done – grocery store and/or post office for resupply, possibly an outfitter if you need to pick up some gear or other sundry outdoor item, or other specialty shops for a myriad of things or services you may need. So, while the “zero” is intended to be zero walking, errands require walking; but, generally you try to keep time on your feet to a minimum.
In the bathroom of the house we were staying in, I stepped on a scale. Down four pounds since we left home. If I lose this amount two-and-a-half more times, it will equal the amount of water we seem to be carrying most the time 😫 Tradeoffs, tradeoffs. This said, I’d be surprised if I make it out of Idyllwild without regaining the weight, since the other thing you do during town stops is EAT.
We started our day with a trip to the local coffee shop. Coffee is a treat for us now because we don’t care about it enough to take the effort to make it when on the trail, so it’s nice in town. It was particularly nice on a chilly morning in this cozy mountain town. We sipped our brews as beautiful melodies floated from the harp a man strummed next to us. A harp! Seriously, where am I? Are their fairies here?
After coffee, we returned to Jay’s place where he and his parents cooked up an awesome breakfast for the three of us: pancakes, eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, OJ, and more coffee. The best home-cooked breakfast after the last four days of Pop Tarts. Happy place.
After breakfast, we walked back down into the main “downtown” area of Idyllwild, where everything is in walking distance, the perfect trail town for weary hikers since you can hit the post office, grocery store, outdoor outfitter, coffee shop, and several places to eat all within a 400 meter radius. Amidst all of this is just what you might expect from a tiny mountain town developed by hippies: all kinds of curio, knick-knack, and crystal shops; organic and vegan eateries; psychic reading dens; and vans selling tie-dye t-shirts. All this tucked into a bowl in the mountains with towering pines shading all of the cute little log cabin styled dwellings and businesses.
Idyllwild is where the city folk come to escape in all seasons: for hiking, biking, sledding, and relaxing. A tiny mountain paradise, it is consistently ranked in the top five PCT trail towns by past hikers and it’s easy to see why. There is just something wonderful about this place. On top of all this, the locals are over-the-top friendly to PCT hikers, which was already abundantly clear to us, bellies full of delicious breakfast from strangers who had invited us into their home like family, welcoming our stinky asses with great big hugs.
In the hub of town, we took a picture at a local chainsaw carving with Jay, Angie, and Terra (Jay’s husky), and then continued up to the outfitter where Helen was trying on new backpacks. She hated her pack and needed to find a better option. Shawn and I also picked up accordion style foam pads. So far on the trail, we have had tiny foam pads that we call ass pads because that’s what they are for and that’s all that fits on them – your caboose. We were jealous when others whipped out full body length pads and could lie out or just have more space to keep things like their lunch out of the dirt. A larger pad is a little heavier, but not a huge weight gain and the benefit is worth the 10 extra ounces to us. We’ll leave our smaller pads behind in a hiker box and I’m sure they will be exactly what someone else needs.
Some errands done, we hit up a coffee tasting shop up the street, because the roughly four cups of coffee I’d already had so far today apparently hadn’t been enough. While Helen doesn’t like coffee (preferring her proper English tea), she came along anyway.
Before leaving, a cup of chocolate covered expresso beans was passed around and Helen at least decided to try one of these. They had chocolate on them, she rationalized, how bad could they be? I popped one into my mouth; very bitter. I looked over to Helen, who had done the same, a disgusted look spreading across her face. “I’ve made an error”, she said, unsure what to do with this terrible taste in her mouth.
What we did is we waltzed down the street and got milkshakes. This continued with pizza for lunch, like the day was a giant roving schmorgesborg. With Terra in tow, we found a spot outside to eat the pizza. Luckily neither hikers nor the locals of Idyllwild find it odd to eat pizza along the grassy side of a parking lot.
Shawn (Hot Mess), me, Jay (Click), Terra, and Helen (recently dubbed Dead Zone, because she can never get cell service, read more below)
Hanging out with a girl from England leads to discussions like this over lunch:
Also, this screenshot is from Helen’s phone. The “AT&T” in the corner is the cause of her new trail name: Dead Zone.
Taking a break from our mobile food tour, we headed back to the house to collect our packs. We thanked Jay’s family for their kind hospitality and he drove us back into town to check into the Idyllwild Inn, conveniently located next to everything.
When we had called to book the room when we were in Warner Springs, the woman on the phone explained that their rooms were themed. “Would you like Old West, French Country, Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter?”, she asked. We went with Old West.
Checked into our room, we went to chores, cleaning and organizing our gear. After a trip to the grocery store for the required provisions, I also subjected myself to an ice bath. Ugh. Good for the muscles, I hope, otherwise uselessly painful.
We stayed in the room most of the evening other than running across the street to grab dinner – more pizza. Several other hikers we’ve been leapfrogging with were at the pizza joint, so we talked to them for awhile about plans for the trail ahead of Idyllwild before returning to our room.
Today was an awesome day of relaxing. Tomorrow we’ll finish up errands and resupply for our return to the trail on Tuesday.
