Day 16 Apr 01 Going as planned..

I was very happy to wake up on April Fools day, that the 14 foot boulder leaning above my tent hadn't flattened me in the night.
Clouds had come through the night before as we were setting up camp. The combination of those clouds and rain in the middle of the night left condensation on the outside and inside of my tent. My bag was damp, and my tent soaked. I hated packing everything up wet but the sun wasnt coming through the weather so I had to get moving to stay warm. I was just gonna have to lay everything out later to dry. I didn't have it as bad as Joe who left some of his clothes out at night and they got soaked. We ate quickly and got moving. We had a six mile ascent to the hwy, where we would hitch to the Paradise Cafe and
Joe could pick up his resupply package and I could buy two more days of food- I was practically out. I figured I'd get bacon, hardboiled eggs, hash browns, things I could put in ziplocks that would last.
I had planned on a weeks worth of food based on the way I used to eat. Not the way I eat now.
We did the final six miles with low clouds and cold wind and arrived at the highway. We only had to walk a mile there, but that meant a mile back too and they don't count toward our mileage and that's two miles off our day's total.
Well flexibility is a virtue out here, as things only go as planned about half the time. That usually means adventure though.
No one picked us up. We stood by the highway in the wind for fifteen minutes and I decided it would take less time to walk there. So after ten more cars passed, we did.
Joe didn't get his package, which meant he was just as out of food just as I was. Can't hike two more days plus a morning into the mountains without food- we had to resupply. Nearest towns were Anza and Idyllwild. We were supposed to be in Idyllwild in three days, and Anza was closer so we were gonna try to hitch to there, but locals told us nothing would be open there on Sundays to resupply. That left us to try for Idyllwild, which had two markets both open. After finishing up a HUGE and tasty burger at the Paradise Valley Cafe, we packed up our gear and headed for the highway to hitch a ride. By the way they're very cool there. They let us hang all our gear on the fence out back to dry.
On the way out some British tourists asked for our picture. I found that really odd. I hadn't showered in almost a week but smiled away!

Car after car passed us by at the hwy junction outside the cafe. Finally I see an old truck and a guy with a cowboy hat and I'm thinking "please..please..."
Sure enough he pulls over and I see a "dont tread on me" sticker.
I smiled. This was our guy.
"You can hop in the back but if we get pulled over I gotta let you out, even of its on the side of the road."
We shook hands and we jumped in.
"That's ok with me."



By the time we were done getting food in Idyllwild it was late and we didn't have a ride for the sixteen miles back to the trail so we stayed at the Idyllwild Inn who have a great PCT discount and called Trail Angel Dave who lives right there in Idyllwild. He was cool enough to drive us back to the trail in the morning for an early start.