6/17/17 – Headaches

Day 55
Miles 0
I mentioned once before that there is not much rest to be had during rest days. Lone Pine turned out to be our busiest zero day yet.

We rose early for a town day, just shortly after 7:00 a.m. and started searching for any news from hikers who flipped north already. 

Not much was to be found except few people from Ashland reporting snow and possible swollen creeks near town. When I received a link to blog from a person hiking the opposite direction, from Chester North, that suggested no significant obstacles, we made our final decision and started looking into how to get to Chester. 

It seemed easy enough at first. Take bus from Lone Pine to Reno, then transfer to a bus from Reno to Susanville and then hop on another bus at Susanville that would take us to Chester. The first bus we could catch run on Monday and today was only Saturday. 

“We can try hitching tomorrow,” Dave said. 

“Yeah, or we could rest tomorrow,” I answered knowing lots of work was still to be done today.
The next thing on our agenda was to find new boots. After 745 miles on the trail, both of us were in a dire need of new pair. Mine showed less wear than Dave’s but the cushioning was just as bad and I lately I started noticing strange foot pain and a little tenderness in my right Achilles. 
Getting new shoes should have been relatively easy. We were heading to Reno, and Reno has REI store that carries Altra brand. Just not in Dave’s size as we found out during a phone call with the store. We started to look into ordering online. And that was the start of my headache. REI would not ship to PO Box, Backcountry’s price was way above anywhere else, and Amazon did not give me a choice of expedited shipping to ensure the shoes would arrive to Burney before us. I spend several hours trying to make sure Dave would get the shoes he needed. Terri Bodine, owner of the company I worked for for 13 years prior to leaving for the trail, saved us by allowing me to use the company’s prime account. If everything goes well, Dave should get new shoes in few more days when we arrive to Burney, California.

Resupply planning was next in the line. Skipping ahead on the trail meant we had to rethink our strategy. What was the next town past Chester? How much food we needed to get there? Where was our best option to buy the food? And… what items from the box that originally was suppose to go to Kennedy Meadows we needed to get mailed to us now?

Finally around 6:00 p.m we had a chance to join our friends at the pool where they chilled the whole afternoon. 
But at least it was only Saturday and the bus would not go until Monday morning. Whole Sunday of sweet nothing-doing was ahead of us.