Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Kitchen Creek to Mount Laguna

About ten miles for the day. Quite a climb up to about 6000 feet.

Rented a cabin at Mount Laguna Lodge tonight. washed my clothes in a tub that the Lodge supplied. They do that so hikers don't stain the bathtub or sink in the cabin, quite smart.

Did some shopping at the gear store here, changed tents and mailed my heavier one home.




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2021 commentary:

Got up this morning and packed up. It's only about ten miles for the day and with a light pack at that.

Carrying less weight, and with cooler temperatures, the walk today was a breeze.

Walked in to Mount Laguna and decided to get a cabin.

Checked out the outfitters here, and decided to swap out tents to a lighter one. Less roomy, but quite a bit lighter.
The little outfitter had a better lightweight backpacking gear selection than REI does online, let alone in store. Sadly, it look like the outfitter has now closed down, probably difficult to keep a business open when almost all of your core customer base comes through town in just a two month or so portion of the year.
There is also a store run by the lodge here. a meager selection of food, but probably enough to get by if a hiker was relying on resupplying here.

A brief note on resupply: There are lots of ways of resupplying while on the trail, but for most people it boils down to either having someone back home send packages of food to pre-arranged drop points along the trail, and by drop points, this usually means post offices, although sometimes it's a business that will hold the package for the hiker.
Post offices will hold mail or packages for people if you send the package to General Delivery at the post office address. with the name of the recipient.
This can work great, but it is difficult to plan out menus for the entire trail ahead of time, factoring in how much to eat as well as changing preferences for flavor and whatnot.

The other extreme is to rely on what the hiker can find in shops along the way. The advantage here is that you can buy as much or as little as you feel like eating, and can adjust if you want something different.
The disadvantage is that not everywhere you are going to be able to access near the trail is necessarily going to have a great variety of choices. Some of the towns near the trail are small, and you might be resupplying out of a tiny general store, or a gas station, or a camp store like at Mount Laguna, where the food is more oriented toward car campers who don't care about weight.
Resupply on the fly is also much more difficult if you have specific dietary needs, like being vegan.
Many hikers end up adopting a hybrid system, getting some supplies sent to them and buying some locally. Some of the small stores in trail adjacent towns have noticed the hiker crowd and seem to stock their shelves accordingly.
 
I packaged up my tent and the bivy (which I had used once and decided it wasn't suited for this portion of the trail), and a couple other things that were just extra weight. It was past time for the post office to close, so that'll get sent out tomorrow.
I decided to check in and get a room, or cabin, at the lodge.
The lodge smartly provides hikers with a bucket or basin to do their laundry on the front steps of the cabins, rather than in the sink or tub in the room. The wash water from doing laundry was basically black.
After doing my laundry I cooked up my dinner and wandered over to the cabin that Mighty Mouse, Barbra and Tim had rented and ate and chatted with them.

Slept well on the bed, as I recall.
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