April 2, 2018
00.0
The next day I visited the Airstream outfitter, Two Foot Adventures, to stock up on Leukotape and a few other things. I decided to buy an Opsack for my food as it was clear and more lightweight than the dry bag I was currently using. I was just finishing arranging my food into its new bag when Nightingale and Guy asked if I wanted to walk to the Post Office and a restaurant with them. We ate delicious breakfast food at a golf club restaurant and on our way to the post office, I found a brand new, unopened Orange Gatorade! Well, waste not, want not. I claimed it for my own. It was warm, but there was a refrigerator at the community center that would fix that in no time!
At the post office, we picked up our resupply packages. I had an armload of things to mail home so the others headed back to the community center while I repacked some things and shipped them off. When I returned to the Community Center, Guy informed me that a raven had been attacking my food back when he got back so he scared it off and had been watching my food for me ever since. I thanked him profusely and rushed over to my bag where I’d left it, stupidly, on a picnic table under an awning. I thought the awning would have kept it out of sight of the birds, but no such luck. The raven had pecked right through my brand new Opsack and into my bag of trail mix! The good news was that the Opsacks came in packs of two. The bad news? I’d just mailed the other one home. I threw away the demolished remains of my trail mix and used duct tape to repair the Opsack. It was the best I could do.
I don’t remember much about that Zero in Warner Springs other than that the Cling-On eventually arrived and tried a couple of times to engage me in conversation, talking as if we were old friends. He mentioned seeing the camper van creeper who’d asked about me again (ugh) and said my pack sure looked heavy with all that food (um, excuse me, but 35 lbs including 4 liters of water and food for several days is pretty damn good, thankyouverymuch). I did my best to ignore him all day. Ugh. I hate being mean but it was getting to the point where I needed to make him understand that we are not friends and that we are definitely not hiking together.
Late in the afternoon a mom with a young son arrived. They were thru-hiking the PCT together and were absolutely exhausted. The mom looked my age and the son looked maybe 8 or 10. By that time there were tons of tents set up in the camping area, so they asked if they could throw down their mats and bags in the community center so they would get some sleep in the peace and quiet. The hikers around the tree had been to town for pizza and beer and were kicking up quite a party. Well, wouldn’t you know it, but a few of the party-hikers decided sleeping in the community center sounded like fun, so they moved their stuff in there, too. Eventually, half the party had moved into the community center and were being quite loud and disrespectful. When I saw the young mom and her son the next morning, they looked dead on their feet from lack of sleep. I was furious, but there was nothing I could do. By the time the rowdy hikers stated moving into the community center, all the volunteers had gone home for the night. So rude.
Sarah Hikes 
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