Birthday Zero (110 mi, +5)

But actually 16 miles behind pace, since I'm not hiking any miles today.

My tracker now has real progress! https://maps.findmespot.com/s/50QM#history/assets

And more photos now that I'm in town: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOMRl_ptZVdBu5cBVIFAmePKoLLZqUHBu0ygnDbYPqBekrkCZ4uSw4G60hU23xq9g?pli=1&key=WVhtdG1LLWhGTGhqYzlvN2ZPMC1DSGV6dTBOcWZR

It's been a relatively easy couple of days, but my body is definitely falling apart a bit. You can train for an 9 hour day of hiking, but it's hard to train for 5 9 hour hiking days in a row and keep a day job. So, a day off. In approximate order of decreasing severity, my left ankle, right knee, chafing, left knee, right hip need to heal up today. None of them are severe enough to really slow me down yet, but I'd rather them feel normal, too. (Okay, the right knee did require slowing down on some of the steeper downhills yesterday.) I'm also hoping to stretch out some tight muscles, which includes, well, all of the lower body ones.

I met up with a big group of hikers yesterday. Let's see if I can name them all: Sunshine (and her boyfriend Noah here for the weekend), Rudolf, Joe, Rambo, Papa, Peach, Skyler, Cowbell, Tidbits. They all night-hiked on 5/20, and I leapfrogged them a couple of times before I made camp and they went another 5 miles. I caught up to them over the course of 5/21. They don't hike together, so I caught some of them while moving, and others I didn't see till we stopped for the day. Then last night we all cooked and ate together.

And Rudolf's uncle is delivering In-N-Out at noon, so that's gonna be great. I need to figure out what else to do in the thriving metropolis of Warner Springs, where the one restaurant is still closed due to COVID. The gas station and post office are open, though, so I got some snacks and ice cream.

My next PO check-in will be in Big Bear Lake, at mile 266. I should get there between 5/29 and 5/31.

Hold for PCT Hiker ETA 5/30

Matt Wismer

General Delivery

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

In case you need the address of the post office itself, it's 472 Pine Knot Ave, Big Bear Lake.