Day 14: Wild for Idyllwild

Our hitch to Idyllwild. This town is incredibly hiker-friendly.

This morning we took the 2.5 miles down Devils Slide and caught a ride first thing to Iydllwild.  A day of showering, laundering, eating, shopping, and catching up.

Idyllwild is an incredibly hiker-friendly mountain town.  Our hitch found us and gave us a tour of town before dropping us off at the state park for $3 hiker camping.  The local outfitter is great, the cashier at the grocery store walked me to the subscreen, the ranger aide was a gem, and a fellow tourist took our dual handstand photo.  Say nothing of the giant Cokes we got with our Mexican brunch and the Idyllwild locals that invited us to their table for a late dinner.  Which I will say something of just in case they read this.

Handstands for Idyllwild!

Two guys and a gal let us crash their table tonight.  The one guy will tell you that his buddy is the tallest ladies' man in town (he IS 6'8"), and the tall one will tell you that his buddy is the only Mexican in town.  So we met a couple of Iyllwild's finest and most famous.  The gal?  She's the tall one's cousin and his buddy's fiance.  Truly great people.  They were going to take us partying tonight and 4-wheeling and shooting tomorrow if we'd just stay another day.  Unfortunately, it was 10 'til hiker midnight, and we have a post office to storm by 9 am.  Had it been Saturday night instead of Sunday, we might have found out what Idyllwild had in store.  But at least we got great company, good laughs, and valuable advice.  (Thanks, Adam!)  And deep-fat fried Oreos.

It was a good day and our first real trail town experience.  Tomorrow, we sleep in, catch Kindergarten Cop at the PO, and hitch back to Devil's Slide for another week of showerless, laundryless, bathroomless, and storeless PCT hiking.  I can't wait!

Team handstands by "the Gymnasts," aka "the Michigan Girls."