Today we’re zeroing in Warner Springs. Edwardo, my blister, is happy for a day of relaxation and rejuvenation.

We walked to the local community center late this afternoon. They host hikers and there’s a trail gear company nearby. We wanted to look at different tent stakes, shoe insoles and purchase trail food for another three days. (We also heard murmurs of a free enchilada dinner for hikers at 4:30 and didn’t want to miss that.)

The community center has a nice sign posted to welcome PCT hikers.

We ended up buying tent stakes, food, socks and shoes…and paying $7 each for dinner. Dinner was cheap and the shoes and supplies were not so cheap. We’re starting to think that the best way to control our costs may be to stay out of trail towns as much as possible!

My body is still reeling during this transition from relatively heathy eating to eating a lot of junk. A typical day is now:

Breakfast=Granola bar (200 kcal)

Snack=Nuts (200 kcal)

Lunch=Tortilla wrap with tuna and cheese (300 kcal)

Snack=Nuts or granola bar (200 kcal)

Dinner=Ramen dish with tuna and tortilla wrap (300 kcal)

So a rough estimate of our current daily caloric intake is 1200 kcal and a rough estimate of our daily caloric expenditure is anywhere from 7,000 to 8,000 kcal.

So, in a nutshell we need higher caloric meals and snacks. We struggled with the same issue backpacking last year, but this issue is going to be more critical to our thru-hiking success this year.

We’ll be mailing our discarded shoes and socks to one lucky recipient tomorrow morning before hitting the trail.