What to do in sunny CA on an off day when you’ve already spent a couple months hiking the PCT over the last 3 years? Why not ride out an earthquake (5.9 on the Richter Scale, not a measly ass 4 like we get in South East Missouri).
I had already decided that I was not going to write the blog this year so I’d have more free time on trail and on our zero days in towns. After the way Bunny and I had overheated this past week on the trail, we decided to follow the lead of the majority of thru-hikers we had seen on the trail and buy some sun shirts. Strider actually wears long underwear under his hiking clothes along with a long sleeve shirt and a hat that blocks all sun from him. Sassy wears a hooded sun shirt. We spent the morning (after a big breakfast, of course) going from store to store in search of sun shirts.
After trying a half dozen different outfitters and clothes outlets, we ended up buying the first sun shirts we had seen. This just goes to prove my point about being a commando shopper—get in, get out as fast as possible. Shopping around is for sissies. If I’m going to spend my new found freedom shopping, I might as well just write the damn blog.
In the afternoon, Bunny and I did our grocery shopping for the next 6 trail days. We had already bought a few dehydrated meals and fuel when we were searching for the shirts. After all this shopping, I turned to Bear for a reprieve. The women were “tired” from all the gathering they had done in the morning. They wanted a nap. The men still had hunting to get out of our system. Bear suggested ice cream. Is it any wonder that I don’t enjoy hiking with Bear? We began our hunt.
Apparently, we are trend setters. We found a Cold Stone Creamery that was empty. We went in and made our selections. Bear chose a “gotta have it” that contained 970 calories. I’m still trying to lose a bit of weight. I chose a “gotta have it” that had a slimming 940 calories. When the masses saw 2 alpha male hunters sit down to our “man sized” rewards after a hard fraught morning with women in a shopping meca, the line formed and stretched out the door. Cold Stone should have paid us for bringing them the meek and weak.
As we were slowly ingesting our bounty, I felt the table move. I thought the masses were getting too close for comfort. I turned around and noticed a display rack and all the items were shaking. “Was that an earthquake?” Bear said he thought so. We saw that the gondola across from us had stopped. People had worried looks on their faces. All eyes turned to us. Our next moves would set the entire mood for all of South Lake Tahoe. Slowly, Bear and I dipped our spoons in our ice creams, and shoveled it in. Stay calm and eat ice cream.
Upon seeing that we had successfully prevented mass hysteria from breaking out, our thoughts immediately turned to the women-folk. We both thought the same thing…Bunny has freaked out. In this instance, we were both right.
When we returned to the hostel, both Bunny and Sassy were sitting outside at a picnic table. Bunny had gotten out of bed and stood in the doorway when she realized it was an earthquake. When the shaking stopped and she saw that the building hadn’t fallen, she made a bee-line for the picnic tables outside. She no longer trusted the old building we were staying in.
We joined them at the table. Our manly influence immediately calmed them. That is, until we started looking up information on the earthquake. We found an article from May of this year that said Tahoe was long overdue for a big one. We found news stories on the quake that just happened as well as the other 38 smaller quakes that had happened in the last 24 hours. This influx of data did not calm Bunny. Nor did the aftershocks that followed through the rest of the afternoon and night.
When we went to bed, I was going to gently shake the bed to pay her back for making me take the top bunk—“you’re too dehydrated to get up to pee in the night. Just take the top bunk.” Just as I was getting ready to shake the bed, another tremor happened. It was kind of relaxing being 6’ off the floor and gently swaying too and fro. I decided from the panic in Bunny’s voice that I had no need to shake the bunk again. But I did it anyway 10 minutes later. I cheerfully slept after that one.
Until about 1 when the room still hadn’t cooled off. Bear got up again to fan the door and bring in cool air. He was trying to comfort all of us and cool us down for a good night’s sleep. Surely, this would have earned him his Angel wings…if only he hadn’t been just wearing his underwear. Are Angels hairy? Maybe next time.
EFG