Day 91 - The Pipers

July 25
Day 91
Miles:  20
Total Miles:  1335

Jubel and I hiked twenty miles through some nice flat trail to reach Highway 89, where crossed the highway and...trail magic!  Two large ice chests full of gatorade, soda, fruit.  A note - Piper's Mom is offering rides and possibly a place to stay!


She picked up Jubel and I at the pull-off by the highway.  A sweet looking woman - Meredith Piper rushed us down the road towards Chester so we could resupply.

"If you have room, we would love a place to stay tonight", Jubel exclaimed from the backseat of the mini-van.
"uhmm"
long uncomfortable pause
"well"
"I guess you could stay with us...sure, why not stay with us."

Not the most creative yogi'ing effort but Mrs. Piper couldn't say no to a couple of dirty hungry grateful hikers.  What an amazing amount of trust she must have to bring two strange men into her home.  If the hiking community has taught me one thing, it is that the world needs more people like Meredith Piper.

Mrs. Piper and her husband must have seen the hunger in our eyes, for they prepared for us an amazing steak dinner.  Their only rule...you must finish everything on your plate!  I love this rule.  Jubel can eat a horse on any day and at this point, so could I.  Steak, baked potato, salad, broccoli, bread, corn-on-the-cobb, apple cake with three scoops of ice-cream for desert!

Mrs. Piper revealed that her daughter had hiked the PCT over the course of the 2008 and 2009 seasons, and self-published her trail journal in two volumes.  "Reading her journals taught me more about my daughter than I ever learned just talking with her," she told us.  She learned how her daughter struggled and how the trail can transform people, with this revelation she joined the PCT community as a trail angel and Jubel and I reaped the benefits.

Breakfast.  Breakfast topped dinner.  Everything you can imagine was set before us and consumed rapidly.  The Pipers understand how to feed thru-hikers and feed us they did.  Scrambled eggs, sausage, toast, fruit, coffee.  The icing on the cake...was literally the ice-cream on the blueberry pancakes!  Vanilla ice-cream on blueberry pancakes - if it hasn't already been invented it should be and served in every trail town from Mexico to Canada.

Oh, and we crossed the halfway point of the Pacific Crest Trail.  1,330 miles down - the same to Canada.  It's going to happen.

Saying goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Piper

The Halfway Marker on the PCT