Time for hot food! The Donner Ski Ranch, a place that is also a restaurant and has milkshakes (probably not though, knowing my luck), lies close to trail and today we passed there!
Right before I got there, trail magic appeared! Hot dogs, chips and beers, what a feast! Merman and AD were sitting there already. Hadn’t seen them in a while. They used to hike with Sensei’s group, but their presence here most likely meant they split.
Someone came by looking for a couple of hikers they knew. She didn’t know their names but had a photo. Upon closer look the people in the photo were Remedy and her boyfriend Justin, meaning they couldn’t be far ahead.
I talked to one of the people organizing the trail magic, a French expat, Pain Perdue. She and the rest of her trail family were here to catch up on miles they missed due to forest fires back when they did the whole trail in 2021. Her friend, Spielberg, had made a documentary of their exploits back then. I should watch it when I get back home. Pain Perdue had had her own share of adventures. In 2014 she burned out at her previous job and went for a work holiday in New Zealand for a year. After that she sailed around for a year (I really should get over my fear of sailing one day) and did the pct after that. Now she was living in the US with her husband she met in New Zealand. Talking with her was inspiring and invigorating, another person to add to the long list of admirable people on trail.
Eventually, Pain Perdue and the others packed up and we left for the ski ranch. There we claimed our free pct 40oz (which is absolutely massive) beers and got milkshakes, dinner and a pie. As per usual, Guardian (who has to be the most consistent person we’ve seen all trail) and Shotgun were there too. Mash and Fitz got quite drunk. IPA, beast that he is, drank one and a half of the giant beers and only said he felt slightly sleepy.
We camped very close to the ranch, half of our group not capable to walk much further anyway.