Day 45: Lake Isabella
Date: Fri 6/1
PCT Start Mile: NA
PCT End Mile: NA
PCT Mileage for Day: 0
Total PCT Mileage: 652.1
The Highlights: people watching in Lake Isabella and the joys of laundering down jackets
Despite the hiker area of the RV Park being full last night, in thru-hiker style it was silent by dark, everyone wiped out from the last section. The night cooled and we slept well. As well as usual anyway, like rotisserie chickens… shifting all night from left – back – right – stomach … repeat. Hiker rotisserie sleep.
Though we just had a zero in Tehachapi, we planned to take another one here for a several reasons… First, the last section kicked our asses. It kicked everyone’s ass and there are many hikers taking a zero here.
We need air conditioned sleep in a bed for one night to reset. Also, we are already arriving to the Sierras a little early for the season, so time is not a big issue. Finally, we likely won’t take another zero until at least Bishop, so we want to sleep in a bed one more time. 😆
This is mind, I still woke up at 5:45am, mostly because this seems to be the time that nature calls, but I went back to sleep/rest, not leaving the tent again until 8am. It was glorious. Angie had a less relaxing wake up, when the sprinkler system turned on and it turned out her tent wasn’t quite out of the spray zone.
LOL watches as the sprinkler soaks the side of her tent.
After packing up our gear, we headed into town for breakfast at Nelda’s Diner. Breakfast may have included another milkshake.
After breakfast Squishy, Shawn, and I got a room at the Kern Motel. LOL wanted to hike out tonight, so we planned to meet her again in Kennedy Meadows.
The Kern Motel is a cheap basic motel with the benefit of being close to the laundromat and grocery store. It was the classy sort of establishment that only accepted cash. It was nothing special but clean enough. Good enough for a hiker.
The rest of the day included all the normal town chores: resupply, laundry, and rest. Our trip to the grocery store included the procurement of the coveted Kiwi Pineapple Powerades.
Enjoying our Powerade at the laundromat.
Laundry included a ridiculous amount of time drying and fixing the down in our jackets. While we’ve washed and dried these in the past with no problem just throwing a couple tennis balls in the dryer, these particular dryers were not working as well. Massive annoyance.
I hate washing/drying down jackets.
Other than these chores and cleaning/organizing our gear, we relaxed in the hotel. I don’t want to be judge, but Lake Isabella is not a lot to look at. Definitely good people watching, in the Wal-martian sort of way, but not exactly a town you’d be giddy to get out and explore much. We were fine to take care of our chores and relax in the motel room.
That’s all the excitement for today! Tomorrow morning we’ll attempt to hitch back to the trail on a Saturday morning. We’ll see how that goes.
