Jammin' with Jameson

14 miles. I slept in at the idyllwild campsite and was super toasty by the time I woke up around 8. I packed up and walked over to the Higher Grounds coffee shop to meet up with everyone. There was a huge hiker group congregated there and in the tree filled park at the middle of the town. Idyllwild turned out to be a very cute town nestled in the woods that gave off mini Flagstaff vibes. I called the number for Mayor Max and was able to book an appointment for 20 minutes from then. The town of Idyllwild is unincorporated and therefore never had a mayor, so they Rana fundraising contest to elect an animal from a local shelter as the mayor. Each vote was a $1 donation and a golden retriever named Max won. Everyone had a blast meeting him and his suave tie, including Pitch’s dog, Birch. We went to a local thrift shop and then went back to PVC for another lunch and to meet Flo. This time I was much more healthy and got a Greek salad and only one chocolate milkshake. Tuna met one of his Italian friends Paolo and you could tell how excited he was to meet a fellow countrymen who could speak the same language. We all washed our clothes with my poor holey ZipLoc bag on the outside picnic table like true hiker trash. Around 3, we packed up and got a hitch back to the trail to start hiking for the afternoon – but not before I could order a cheese quesadilla to go for dinner! The sky was very cloudy so the heat wasn’t too bad and we started on our way. My body felt better but still not 100% so I was hiking much slower at around 2 mph. The views were beautiful of the valley and boulders and I was dedicated to pushing through a bit of the night to catch the total solar eclipse around 9 and make the next few days a more even mileage. Robbie, a guy from Washington, joined us and talked with Swell about trail running and myself about growing up in the Bahamas and Thailand. Tuna, now dubbed Glowstick for his bright yellow self made pack, and I left Swell and Flo behind for another 5 mile night push. We could not have picked a better night to do a few after hours miles because the sunset was stunning viewed from the ridgeline and we could clearly see the moon start to become obscured. I hiked without a headlamp for a bit but as the eclipse was progressing it was becoming darker and darker so I lit it up baby. The total eclipse was really cool to witness and I was able to watch the last seconds as it was totally blocked, but the red effect was a little bit less prominent than I was expecting. Either way, it was such a cool experience to witness it from the trail. I got to the campsite after a steep descent around 9:20 and quickly scarfed down my quesadilla on the all natural stone recliner that Glowstick found. I also got to enjoy the sweet sweet orange I packed out. We had an incredible view of Palm Springs lit up by lights and we’re shocked at how big it seemed. I tiredly got set up and went to bed.