Day 13, April 30: Zero Day in Idyllwild
First official zero (mileage) day on trail!
I woke up feeling rested and glowing. To add to their generosity, Scott and Mel made us a delicious breakfast of biscuits, eggs, bacon and veggie sausage for Snake Charmer, a pescatarian.
After breakfast, Alex gave both Christina and me a “shakedown” of our packs - aka lay everything out and question every piece of gear with the goal of lightening the pack. I ultimately didn’t get rid of too much- a small cup, some sleep shorts, the stuff sack for my sleeping pad, some kitchen items, and some first aid kit. Alex tried to convince me that I didn’t need my lightweight camp shoes but I declined to ditch them.
Scott and Mel drove us to our respective Airbnbs, and then took us to the grocery store where we were going to buy our resupply of food for the next 5 days. After shopping and organizing our food, we headed to a burger joint where I had an incredibly delicious In-N-Out style burger. While we were at the restaurant, my best friend Sofia arrived! She drove up for a quick overnight trip to see me. It was so great to be with her and introduce her to my trail friends.
We all wandered around town and made our way to the awesome gear store, Nomad Ventures. I used to go to this store whenever I would come to Idyllwild to rock climb, and it was fun to be back and see it with a different lens of backpacking vs. climbing.
After moseying around town, Sofia and I went back to our Airbnb and relaxed. We listened to the Grateful Dead and I organized my pack and rested my feet while she did yoga on the porch below the pines. So lovely!
We were getting hungry around dinner time, so we went back to town and Sofia got a pizza from the same place we had gone the day before. We swung by the other Airbnb where the rest of the group was staying so I could drop off and grab a couple things, and Sofia and I returned to ours to settle in for the night. We had a spa night, complete with face masks and a long shower for me, and had lots of good girl talk.