tcmauer

Travel day/zero day

I feel like I’ve been a planet orbiting around Ziggy and The Bear’s for the past few days, but now this celestial body is breaking free and rocketing off down trail.  I take a shuttle to San Bernadino, and then public transit to Big Bear City, which is a ski town.  As Idyllwild is touristy, so is Big Bear.  I check in to the hostel and am pleased to see Liz and Reanne.  They were at Ziggy’s last night as well.  Liz and Reanne are the Aussie women I started with at the southern terminus, but I hadn’t seen them for a couple weeks.  My out and back hike have set me back a couple days, but I don’t want to hit the Sierra for another month because of snow, so I have time to kill.  We eat Indian food for dinner and my lamb dish is delightfully spicy and aromatic.  When I hike long distances, heavily spiced food is what I crave most (along with peanut M&Ms, but that goes without saying).  I devour 4 pieces of Naan bread and then head off to the market for a pint of ice cream, which I similarly demolish.  What strange machines, these bodies of ours.  The hostel is a fine place, with people milling about in a domestic setting and doing domestic things.  Some of us sit in the living room and watch the first episode of the newest season of Game of Thrones, which is a most welcome diversion from the trail.  I stay up past hiker midnight, aka 9 pm.