Woke up and realized I was sleeping next to Joe and Nancy. I could see Chief off in the distance and later saw Marshall.

I could see someone setting out all kinds of cereal and making coffee. Turns out this is a nice little place. They used to host hikers in nearby Anza. Ziggy and Bear hoped to one day have a place closer to the PCT. Eventually a house that was 1/4 mile from the PCT popped up on the market and they jumped on it. The backyard is basically carpets with carport tents above them. There is a large garden shed setup that has a shower installed in it. They feed the hikers breakfast. For lunch when they go to pick up hiker boxes that people have mailed, they also go to Burger King. For dinner they serve a garden salad and later on ice cream.

Chief left early after breakfast. I wasn't in any shape to leave then so I figured I'm going to be taking the late hiking shift again. The thermometer currently reads 112...so it might be a while until I'm on the trail. Two other hikers left this morning but turned around and came back. They were renting a car and going to Disneyland for a few days.

Later...

I asked one woman there when she was heading out and she just responded with a simple "nowhere....I'm done with the desert, Maybe the mountains later this year..but I am done and my husband is coming to pick me up. Her husband arrived a while later and she was happy to see him.

Another girl at the ZB place goes by the trail name of Double Sprainbow. Apparently last year her and her husband were in the Sierras on the PCT and she sprained both her ankles and they were all different colors, or at least that is the story I heard. She saw me typing on my bluetooth keyboard into my iPhone and said "WOW!, you are actually bringing a keyboard with you?!". She felt how light it was and then said she was jealous. She actually had an ipad mini with her but said it wasn't the same to type one.

(so if you are wondering why these journal entries are suddenly longer...this is the reason)

Met a few other hikers that came in. I walked the mile back to I-10 and took some photos of the crossing in the daytime. Spooner was there and I had him hold the cardboard. He asked how Ziggy and the Bear was and I told him that he should check it out. I think mentioning "ice cream" and "foot bath" were enough to tip him over the edge and go there.

I got back and a few people asked where I had gone. They thought I was slightly nuts in walking the mile back to I-10 just to take some photos. On the other hand, some hikers left Ziggy and the Bear at 1:30pm in the middle of the heat which is something that I wouldn't do.

A hiker from Missouri was disappointed his hiker box didn't show up. There was enough food in the swap box to get him to Big Bear City (about 65 miles away), but I have him a bag of my apple chips anyway.

I dried about 50 pounds of apples for this trip and I still enjoy eating them, but they keep losing out to other things like peanuts and candy bars. (Cora: "...Shocking")

Ziggy & the Bear serve salad around 5:30pm. Earlier on I was talking to a hiker named Matt who had way too much food in his resupply box. He was hiking faster than he planned, plus another person was not with them. He held up a giant unopened bag of Costco bacon bits and said that it was pretty unusable at this point. I told him he could throw it on the table when the salad was served. Later on he actually did that and he made all kinds of new friends with all the other hikers when they let out a cheer upon seeing the bacon bits.

I took a clock photo of Ziggy & the Bear and then packed up to leave.

Finally left their place about 6:00pm. Didn't want to stay for 7:00pm ice cream or I knew I'd never get gone. The light was nice and I listened to the last of the Anthony Bourdain Kitchen Confidential audiobook. The advice for future chefs bit was pretty funny. "Never work in any restaurant where the owner's name is in front of the restaurant name". Heh.

Near the Mesa Wind Farm I ran into Joe and Nancy. We walked a while and eventually pulled out our headlamps. The trail was uphill and pretty steep. There is no way I would have wanted to do the hill during the heat of the day. We rounded a corner and there was Marshall resting.

Somehow the conversation rolled around to youtube videos and I showed everyone one of the Farting Preacher videos. Here we were all laughing in the middle of the trail. I broke my own rule about not going on the net for non-pct stuff but made an exception in this case. Then again, cell service is more frequent in Southern California so it isn't like I'll even have the option of going online farther down the trail.

We hiked in the dark for a couple hours. Nancy tripped a couple times because the batteries were dying in her headlamp and she couldn't see as well. Eventually around 10:30pm we decided to call it a night.