Day Nine – Friday, June 2

IDYLLWILD, CALIF. PCT Mile 178.0
Zero Day

After staying on the patio of the Paradise Valley Cafe, we hitched into Idyllwild. The Mountain Fire of 2013 shut down a section of the PCT that remains closed, so the hitch into Idyllwild was the easiest way around the closure.

Initially, we planned to hike into town but the traffic along Route 74 would have made the nine-mile road walk dangerous. We almost resorted to ordering an Uber to get us to town until a Hummer slammed on it's brakes for us to jump in. As an owner of a Subaru Outback, I'm a little upset with the Subie community that a number of Foresters, Outbacks, and Legacy's passed us by (Kelly feels that had a Baja come across us it would have stopped). The couple in the Hummer were very nice, despite the husband saying the only way he'd hike the PCT is with an AR-15. When we got to town they drove us around and pointed out everything we needed to know.

They dropped us off at the Red Kettle for breakfast a little before nine. We inhaled a couple of egg skillets and pancakes at a table while the bar was filled with old-timers giving each other and the wait-staff hell.

From breakfast we went to try and get a room in town for the night to really start relaxing on our first zero (a zero being a day we do not hike at all). Getting a room proved harder than we thought.

Idyllwild isn't a Motel 6 kind of town. There are several small lodges and groups of bungalows throughout town and when the woman at the Idyllwild Inn informed us it was Friday we realized a room might be hard to come by.

The Idyllwild Inn directed us to the Silver Pines Lodge that wouldn't give us a room unless we were staying Friday AND Saturday. From Silver Pines we were sent to Mary, who runs a similarly themed place (Mile High Inn, maybe).

On our way to Mary's we stopped in at Nomad Ventures, Idyllwild's outfitter, so I could try on some new shoes. The guys at Nomad Ventures were incredible. They let me try on about a half-dozen different shoes and wander about the store in indecision until I told them I'd come back after we secured a place to stay. The guys at the shop sent us toward the Fireside Inn where we met Glenda, who couldn't give us a room but could give us a house for the night with a PCT Hiker discount. Our home for the night was a little Mountain cabin with a spiral staircase up to a queen bed and twin bed. In a matter of minutes we had the entire place covered with our things, letting the tent, sleeping bags, and other miscellany air out.

After the first real showers since we left North Carolina, we put on our rain jackets and pants and grabbed some ice cream on our way to the laundromat. Eighty-some degrees in my all black rain outfit and Kelly in her navy blue get-up made for a sweaty time and some concerned stares. Once the clothes were clean, we sweated our way back to the house to line dry everything and learn that the United States had withdrawn from the Paris Agreement – sorry Southern California.

After lazing around for a few more air-conditioned hours we went to the Idyllwild Brewpub for dinner. The place was busy but we immediately ran into Jesse from Canada, Haymaker, and a couple, Dwayne and Jen – also thru-hikers – and joined them for dinner. Haymaker hadn't been successful at securing a room for the night and was overjoyed to hear we had some space for him at our house.

We made it back to our home for the night and by about 9:30 p.m. we were fast asleep.