Day 11 Photos

I had planned on doing 15 -16 mile days throughout this section, taking it easy on my feet and timing my arrival at Walker Pass to land me at the Onyx post office Monday morning. I'm not very good at not walking... Saturday morning had me 20 miles away and within reach of the post office, assuming it closed early Saturday afternoon. I climbed out of songbird pass for an hour and a half pretty much nonstop, up into the clouds and rain drips. With a lighter load of water by then and my body hardening up, it really wasn't a challenge to chug up the switchbacks. Going down is another story though... After walking all my 20 miles by 2pm with a couple short breaks my feet were pissed right off. They were good most of the time, but the 2000 foot descent to walker pass finished them off. Luckily the post office closed that morning for the weekend and I walked into Meadow Ed's unexpected trail magic - a 5 day long barbeque just for hikers! With a couple other trail angel families it was amazing. Two plates of pasta and salad, a veggie burger, countless cookies, drinks and laughs. About 15 hikers sat around the fire with a half dozen trail angels telling jokes and stories, eating well and having a blast! Thanks soo much to Meadow Ed, Chai Guy, Bearbait and family, Magnet (formerly Incredible Bulk) and the other Angels whose names I'm missing. My trail name has now officially stuck - I'm 'The Trail Virgin' hehe. The old timers called me that on my first day, so to give them a chuckle I signed it as my name on a couple trail registers when ahead of them. I never heard it again until all the others who read it behind me caught up... "oh, you must be The Trail Virgin, right?". Funny stuff. - Trail Virgin