Day 67, Monday, April 29. TM 418.6, Mill Creek Fire Station—(12.0 miles)

People were already leaving the campground before 6. That’s before 6 am! So that’s how they cheat and get in 25+ miles a day. They don’t even sleep 12 hours a night. I must not let Bunny know these dark secrets of the trail. She says she wants to put in longer days, but I don’t know if she wants them bad enough to give up sleep. 

It’s always a good sign to start the day with a warning

As it was, we were near to, if not, the absolute last to leave. We had already agreed with Cliff Hanger to meet at the fire station and order pizza together. When you’re working full time and you decide you’re going to have pizza in the evening, it’s just pizza. When you’re hiking and discover you can order pizza on the trail, it’s PIZZA! I don’t care what Bunny says, food is a huge motivator to a thru-hiker. If you get a chance to have food that doesn’t require adding boiling water, it is of orgasmic proportions. 

Bunny tried to pull the ol’ “let’s take our time getting ready today.” Oh, hell no! We’ve got PIZZA waiting at the other end of the trail. I’m going to the privy and when I get back you’d better be packed.” I’m the man. I put my foot down. I have spoken. I just hope the pizza motivated her because I know my “I’m the man” routine is about as effective as peeing on a forest fire—absolutely no impact (except in the opposite direction intended. But, if she is motivated by pizza (which I think she is) she might just let me have this small victory. As I said, we were near the last to leave. My “Man Card” holds no sway here. 

Remnants of the 2009 Mill Creek Fire

Yesterday, Bunny had tried using K-tape on her hip and it seemed to work quite well. She was hiking with almost no pain and keeping up all day. Today, the tape lost its placebo effect. She was back to normal. When we got to the top of our big climb, she decided to drop her drawers and remove the tape. She even asked me to pull it off. Quick and painless has always been our motto when clothes are off. 

After removing the tape, she was walking like she did yesterday. Bunny started explaining how K-tape works by rerouting your bodies pain response. As we were talking, it became apparent to us that she has to remove the tape every day at the end of hiking for it to work. Even with a hobbled Bunny going uphill, we still averaged right at 2 mph. On the downhill side without tape and feeling better, we made a good enough rate to make up for our break times and still make it to the fire station by 2. 

Not even the fog can put a damper on our fake smiles

This was another schizo weather day. We were walking in a cloud all the way uphill this morning. It just kept rising with us as we climbed, always blocking out the sun. The sun tried to break through the clouds, but every time it nearly did, the conditions got much worse. After we crossed our high point for the day, the sun just quit trying. We were walking in wind with intermittent drizzle. We had to put on our raincoats just to stay warm. We’re almost done with the desert and I’m glad. I’m looking forward to finally getting some warm weather. 

The sun is shining on the desert floor, but we get fog

We took a wrong turn (meaning we stayed on the trail and missed the turn to the fire station) so Cliff Hanger made it to the fire station before us. We took the long way around and caught up with her. She found a menu for the pizza place. I scouted out some tent spots while the women decided what they wanted to order. I took my time. When I came back even indecisive Bunny had narrowed her choice down to two. This is progress. I got a final answer and then tried to call. The signal was so weak, we kept getting disconnected. Every time I lost the call, I climbed higher on the ridge. After 4 or 5 attempts, I gave up.

I got Bunny to come with me to the station to try and borrow a phone. Women always have better luck than men yogi-ing anything. One of the firemen told us to get signal we’d have to walk about a mile down the road. Bunny asked if they had a land line we might be able to use. Bunny, female; fire fighter, male; land line yogi-ed. I called back the pizza place and they had already started cooking the pizzas figuring that we’d eventually get in contact with them. The first thing I had said the first call was that we were PCT thru-hikers. They knew the sale was good. 

Angels advertising to be able to help hikers

We decided to set up our tents while we waited for the delivery. We found a couple of passable spots and went to work. The biggest fear is that we aren’t 100% sure what poodle dog bush looks like so we tried to avoid touching any plants (impossible). The next fear is trying not to puncture our tents setting them up since the desert is just like a fraternity, full of pricks. 

The minute our tents were up, it started raining. I filtered water while Bunny did her work. Before I could even get the water up to the tent, the pizza delivery guy showed up with our order. He even brought us some apples from his house. I had already added a $10 tip to the order so this was a win for whatever driver got it. I worked pizza delivery for a couple years in college so I always tip drivers well. I used to hate going to fraternities on a delivery. They’d give me a $10 bill for a $9.90 pizza and say “keep the change.” Desert house. 

Tent pizza night!

Daniel showed up while we were holed up in our tents eating. Bunny and I had just finished our salad but Cliff Hanger had already eaten her fill of her carnivore pizza. She offered Daniel a couple of slices while Bunny and I remained quiet as church mice. We’re going to hell for our pizza greed. 

Bunny fell asleep by 4:30. Maybe this means we’ll be able to get an early start tomorrow. The fog was still thick but the rain did stop by 5. It’s been almost 2 hours since I ate half of MY pizza but I’m afraid to get another slice because it might wake Bunny up. She was quite gaseous before the pizza and now I have major fear of lighting the stove for coffee in the morning. How ironic, I ordered my pizza without mushrooms and now I’m going to die in a mushroom cloud. I guess it’s a good thing we’re so close to a fire station.

May Easy rest in pieces

EFG