Day 30 (6/16) A Day With Dad

Day 30 (6/16) A Day With Dad

I woke up around 9am, looked around, fell back asleep. Then again around 10:30, and finally at 11:15 I rolled out of bed for real. My dad was downstairs in the lobby keeping up on work and emails, so I called him and we were soon headed out to brunch at Denny’s. What a great choice. I haven’t had eggs since leaving Big Bear weeks ago. We talked about all kinds of things, but the strangest one was hearing about a month backlog of politics. Thats actually one thing I’ve been glad to avoid while out here. Apparently back when Osama bin Laden was killed, it took a few weeks before that news filtered out to people on the trail. Major catastrophes could happen, and life out here would keep on going unchanged for quite some time.

After eating we came back to the hotel and spent some time in the whirlpool. It was great to soak my feet and relax my muscles. My shin splints had hurt on that last descent yesterday, so it was really nice to give them a break today. The original plan had been that the two of us might be able to hike together for a bit, but I was in desperate need of rest, so the plan was changed. In light of that, we talked about potentially setting up another trip in late July, possibly up by Crater Lake in Oregon, so that would be awesome. I did laundry (cleaning toxic waste is somewhat hopeless, but I do it anyway) and then we went out to dinner at Hometown Buffet. $10 for an All-You-Can-Eat was the perfect thing for me, and I must’ve taken about 4 plates of dinner, and two more of dessert. On the way out I bought a small bouncy ball for a quarter, and hopefully I’ll be able to use that to roll my arches to help loosen up the plantar fascia. I’ve realized its not just the shin splints that are the issue, but rather a whole series of interconnected muscles that are all tight.

We came back to the hotel, and sorted through my food, where I finally ditched some of the extra meals that have accumulated from the times I’ve eaten off trail (like at Cajon Pass). Awfully nice to get rid of the excess weight. The tradeoff is that I picked up a pair of boots and my ice axe. I’d need these after Kennedy Meadows, so unfortunately since I was running further behind, I’d have to carry them a little further. In the end it was probably a wash with the food trading for the new gear. Then, off to bed at 11 (a very late night) for another glorious night of sleep in a real bed.

Miles Today: 0
Trip Mileage: 565