SHELTER COVE ZERO DAY

PCT DAY 10: Wednesday July 5th, 2017
0 miles (0km)

Shelter Cove was very busy with holiday makers, mainly retirees traveling in large RVs. Yesterday evening we met Tim, who was holidaying with his family and fishing on the lake. He insisted on buying us a beer.  We spent a few pleasant hours chating to him about work, family and life in general. It is always great to connect with people and realise that we have many more things in common that unite us than we do differences that divide us.
After doing our laundry and having a 3 minute ($1.75) shower we settled at the resort store to update the blog and have breakfast. Their breakfast burrito was pretty tasty and the capuccino sensational, especially after the cold water instant coffee yesterday.
While waiting to meet up with  our friend Jim, whom we hiked with in the desert last year, we struck up a conversation with Carolyn, who was travelling with her dog Bridget.  After being left a widow quite suddenly she has decided to sell her house, buy a motorhome and see more of her coutry with her dog rather then get stuck in her grief. It was amazing of her to share much of her deeply personal  trauma with us, complete strangers.

I love this aspect of the trail.  People feel free to talk to you because the PCT gives them a reason to start a conversation.  While we were talking with Carolyn, Jim arrived having ridden his motorbike over from Salem.  It was so good to see Jim again, catch up on news over the past 12 months and see that he is getting over a severe case of adult chickenpox. We shared lunch and many laughs before he headed back, leaving us a huge gift of incredible fresh fruit.  The rest of the afternoon we sat by the lake and caught up on social media and other news  before joining a few other hikers for dinner. We shared the fruit as we had far more then we could eat.
As the evening approached Odell  Lake was so very still with almost a full moon hanging above it. It looked picture postcard beautiful. It has been a very restful day.