JThikes - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2015

Clarity

I woke up this morning, and I knew I wasnt returning to the trail. It was the first idea in my head as I woke, and the idea sat there more as if it had already happened instead of defining what would be.
I went out and got some breakfast at the Idyllwild bakery. I saw Jonathan walk by, and he came in and we chatted for a bit before he resumed his morning errands. We met back up at the room, and we talked a bit about my decision. He suggested I reconsider; that I should rest my ankle some more, move on, rest it some more, and repeat until it got better. I said that the thought had crossed my mind, but ultimately I didnt see much value in gimping along the trail aided by NSAIDs. I told him the only thing that would come from that approach would be a half-a$ $ ed grind of a trip or a really messed up ankle that would leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere. I told him I didnt want to be like the people that get so blinded by their goal of "reaching the summit" that they neglect the raging blizzard developing around them. He respected that because he had been in exactly that situation and rightly turned back.
My hike was now done, but the adventure was not. How was I going to get to an airport? I spoke with Chris, the woman who ran the Lodge where we stayed. She suggested I contact some local trail angels, but it seemed that everyone was not very interested in dealing with the Memorial Day traffic. Cant say I blame them. Then, Chris suggested I try to get a hitch down the hill to Hemet where there was a car rental place. Sounds like a good deal to me, especially when armed with a sign she printed out for me. Many thanks Chris.
I said goodbye to my trail buddies as they got ready to ride back to the trail, and I headed off to the highway to try and conjure up a ride. After about 15 minutes, I thought I may not be getting out of town anytime soon since most people are probably staying in town, or local, for the weekend. Just then, a guy and his brother pulled over in their truck and had me hop in. Sweet!
It turns out Michael and his brother were trying to get a camping spot up around Idyllwild for the weekend, but every hotel room and patch of dirt was spoken for by someone else with the same idea. They turned around to go home to Hemet and saw my sad mug on the side of the road and offered help. We got back to Hemet, but it turns out all three rental car places had closed about an hour earlier, not to open for the rest of the weekend. Bummer. Michael graciously offered for me to crash on his couch, but I told him I would just call up for an airport shuttle.
We headed back to his place where I made some phone calls and scheduled a shuttle to LAX. It wouldnt arrive for a couple of hours, so we hit In&Out where we got double doubles and animal style fries. Pretty good. Then we crashed back at his place watching Family Guy on Netflix until the shuttle arrived around 4.
And the rest is history. I had a nice chat with the driver, got a red-eye out of LAX, and less than 24 hours after I made the call to quit the trail I was home. Craziness.

Entry 11 of 11
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