PCT Day 8 – Quincy

I was no bothered by animals, hooves or pawed, during the night. Or maybe I was but was too tired to wake up. I am getting grizzlier.

The hitch

I moved around slowly in camp waiting for the good people of Plumas County to start driving around so they could pick me up. This location is hard to hitch from sometimes. It connect Beldon with the Bucks Lake Resort. Some have waited for two hours for a ride to town.

I was lucky today. Within 15 minutes a man in a white truck pulled over. His name is Greg. He is a mechanical engineering for Facebook. Among his jobs is helping support the 50 data centers they have around the world. His family stays at Bucks Lake each summer while he works at a rented office in Quincy. He drops me off at the Safeway.

Town chores

Town chores are per usual. Call home. Eat as much as I can. Get food and supplies. Upload blog posts. Try to relax and rest. Here is my 4-day haul from Safeway. Sorry, it really blends in with the bedspread! Safeway is one of those insidious stores with dual pricing. If you have a member card everything is expensive. If you don’t, it’s super expensive. Four days of snacks and food cost $100!

I also bought some more KT tape for my knee. This new king is supposed to stay attached. I also bought some mole skin for my toe. Remember when I taped my toes a few days ago? Well their newborns did not approve and threw a blister fit. So I hope to fix that now before it becomes a real issue.

As I walk the 25 minutes to my hotel, carrying my groceries. A car pulls over and the window goes down. A woman inside says, “I’m a trail angel. Can I give you a ride somewhere?” Her name is Debra. She is a real estate agent in town and she has that easy outwardness that sales people have. She shows me the best place to hitch from in the morning.

I make a last ditch effort to fix my feet after learning (online) how to use the moleskin. It seems that it should be shaped to fix the blister area. I go downtown but it is 6:30 and everything is closed. I ask the wait staff at Quintopia Brewing if they have scissors I can borrow. They do. I cut about ten random shapes and take them with me. I wasn’t about to take off shoes and socks in this fine establishment. I mean this is a trail Town but there are limits. (See photo at top of post.)

By the way, the arugula salad and the dry-hopped blonde ale may have been the best dinner I have had in 10 years! For my beer friends, it the hops were Mosaic.

Eye candy

Yesterday I promised to include some nice pictures that I was too tired to add yesterday. I hope you enjoy them.

• August 4
• Starting marker: 1267.9
• Ending marker: 1267.9
• Miles hiked today: 0
• Uncharacteristic moment: Bought a 5-hour energy supplement for the trail because my “healthy” caffeine supplement ran out. I now am a doper.