I was planning on taking a zero and getting all the lovely mundan things done - feet care, laundry, food resupply, and most of all cleaning my dirt covered body. Even pulled the epsom salt feet soak in the hotel trash cans. Glorious. I did all of that while waiting for Smackdown and Sabrina to get into town because we originally planned on sharing a room together. Idyllwild is such a beautiful, quintessential mountain town. The backdrop are huge granite rocks jutting into the sky. Imagine that view with old timey shops oozing candies and delicious bubbly drinks everywhere you go.

After having breakfast with the previous nights crew, I ran around town for some alone time to run strands. I went to the outfitter store and Ofcourse brought up my feet. I ended up getting the right insole and getting injinji socks to help with blisters. Hopefully that works. I’m willing to try anything at this point.

Smackdown hit me up and said he was here and that our room was ready so I headed on over. We chilled and doctored our feet more. He was having some shin and ankle issues. Which made sense because he did a 38 mile day the dah before. Insanity. Sabrina showed up and we all headed I to town for the free hiker bracelets from the crystal shop and then headed to the town brewery. Met some new trail faces and met Forest Gump for the first time. I have been wondering when that was going to happen. The beer was great, but the stomach was rumbling so Smackdown, Sabrina and I went back to the hotel to make a bomb ass dinner of fresh veggies and moms spaghetti.

When we got there, I re-examined my feet and realized the small pieces of tape I used to keep the thread inside my blisters on my foot had raised little bumps on it and were extremely itchy. They were literally only where the tape was. So I came to the conclusion that I’m allergic to leukotape, the goddes of all blister prevention for thru hikers. I was so sad. Like out of all the things. But alas, ah least I know now. I soaked the shit out of my feet every chance I got and applied cbd lotion I had bought earlier that day.

We chatted, ate and drank. It was such a lovely evening. We talked about nonsense and trail. I really enjoyed their perspectives about hiking your own hike. I must admit, I’ve been a little worried about the whole tramily thing. After talking with them and hearing about Smackdown’s trail experiences, I’m going all in on hiking Becca’s own hike. Letting each day fall into place and letting what will be, be.