Ziggy and The Bear. Mile 210 and beyond

The descent from Idyllwild was horrible. First of all it was 20f that night so way below freezing and I have a tarp tent which is a tent that has an open bottom to allow maximum circulation but it doesn't trap heat well. I basically woke up and got out onto a frozen ground and had to walk down 8,000ft. This sounds nice going downhill but it's horrible on your knees.

Kitten and I hiked without Christian the Lion because we planned on meeting him a few days ahead and we sure missed our German counterpart. We made a 25.5 mile day and as the sun went down I was extremely tired and low on water. We went under the I-10 freeway and found coolers of beer and water. A few miles from there we would get to the trail angels Ziggy and The Bear who host their home to hikers. the sun was going down and the remaining miles were horrible. My feet hurt so bad as we trudged through sand and against a headwind.

Finally, we get to a white house and walk through the back gate. We were smelly and in a lot of pain and as we stepped into the backyard hikers cheered for our arrival! Hot-Mess gave me a big hug, but where was Christian the Lion? In 3 seconds a huge man grabbed me from behind, squeezing me terribly hard, it was him. I yelled out loud so excited and elated to see him that I lost track of what was going on. He pointed to his cup which was full of rootbeer float (Europeans don't have rootbeer) and we told me it was heaven here. Next thing you know, I was pushed into a comfy chair, my shoes were taken off and my feet were placed in an epson salt warm bath!!!!! My emotions were once again all over the place knowing that I was back with my partner, my feet were going to survive and I didn't have to freeze at night. But it only got better. A woman came up to me and asked "chocolate, vanilla, cookies and cream, strawberry, or mint?" Still overwhelmed by the hot foot bath, I didn't know how to answer. "Ice cream flavor silly". I said a little if everything.

I was given a fresh towel, a carpeted floor to sleep on, and breakfast would be provided with coffee. This is once again, TRAIL MAGIC.

We got up at 6:45 and Hot-Mess and her besty Brittany joined our group for the hike out. We only were going to walk 16 miles due to the next few days of very challenging terrain and we had to slow down to enjoy the scenery! There was a big river on the map in the San Gorgonio wilderness. It was hot, and we had just hiked up mountain. The river was in site, swimming and sunshine were on the menu. The five of us jumped into our undies and blissfully went splashing into the water, giggling as the scene of swimming in the desert is most unusual. After an hour of summer camp-esque fun, big dark clouds came looking for us. We threw our clothes on and the fun came to an end. We hiked another 8 miles to another riverside site and enjoyed listening to the thunder in the distance.

Christian the Lion taught me how to read a barometer and its pretty telling if a storm is near. The higher the number, the better the weather and if it goes down, your in trouble. I have a ton of admiration for CTL due to his experience and his sense of humor. I hope I'll be able to keep up with him because my right knee is giving me major problems when I go downhill.

There is thunder in the distance and I am going to sleep by 8 so I can rest up as much as possible.

We passed into the 200 mile zone and Section C of the PCT

-king street