Date: May 11, 2017
Miles: 436.1 – 444.31
My ankles refused to cooperate this morning and the bottoms of my feet felt like they went a few rounds with Mike Tyson. I sort of half rolled out of my tent until I could get into a standing position, and then did the ‘hiker hobble’ around the campsite while I was getting packed up. Once I hit the trail, though, my feet warmed up and I could walk normally again. Phew!
Today was a short hike in to Acton, where I planned to relax for the afternoon and then stay the night at the KOA campground.
The first order of business was laundry, since the last time my clothes had seen soap was the Wrightwood whirlpool incident and my socks were starting to smell like wet dogs. Next up was a gloriously long and hot shower, and then I hung out by the pool, drinking pop and eating ice cream sandwiches and family size bags of potato chips while I chatted with other hikers and caught up on some blog posts. It was wonderful.
Later that evening, a bunch of us ordered pizza and watched Armageddon (I never get tired of Bruce Willis) until it got close to hiker midnight (9 pm), by which time everyone had conked out. It’s actually amazing how quiet a camp of hikers will get by that time each night. Some of the ‘regular’ campers were overheard worrying about us wild and crazy hikers staying up and partying until all hours. We laughed at the notion of any of us being able to keep our eyes open after sunset. I don’t think any of us did.
