April 18 - Resupply

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The Tehachapi post office opened promptly at 9:00 am to a crowd. I was expecting three boxes: resupply, a bounce box, and new shoes from REI. 

The postal employee returned with two boxes, my resupply which I took and the bounce box which I forwarded to Ridgecrest. The REI box was missing so I called REI to get a tracking number. I was a little worried as I really needed those shoes. The person at REI was very helpful! With the tracking number the postal employee was able find the box with shoes. Thank goodness, because the shoes I was wearing were falling apart. 

On my way back to the hotel I was stopped twice by people asking if I was a PCT hiker and if needed a ride. This town is filled with people who are very familiar with hikers. Even a guy from Albertson's who passed by me at Baskin Robbins while on his break asked me how the trail was going. 

After returning to the hotel I got together with the Fullers to talk about water strategy for the next segment. We (Deb-she's the consummate organizer) decided that we'd cover 17, 19, and 31 miles between water sources. The last one is going to be really hard. We'll probably get up at four am and start walking to beat the heat and give us time to get to the road before traffic totally ceases. Uhg!

We also decided that since the first segment included a long climb that we'd leave on the 4:20 bus to the trailhead. Double Uhg!

The rest of the day was filled with returning shoes, picking up some snacks and fruit, going to the library to update by blog, and going with the gang for pizza. 

Hikingsolo