Reunions

As soon as we entered the lobby of the Four Points Sheraton in Rancho Cucamonga Martin declared from the counter: “I said you would be back.” I was about to give him my name for check-in but he already knew. In the evening we went to cash in our two-for-one chips at the bar and the bartender called out as soon as he saw us: “Two Redd’s Apple Ales, right?”

Martin

We were at the Four Points once again because we once again were picking up an old hiker friend from the LAX airport, this time Dave Kinney. I have points I can use for free Sheraton hotel stays and Rancho Cucamonga keeps us out of congested Los Angeles as a home base. The Four Points now tops the Summit Inn at Snoqualmie Pass as the establishment we’ve stayed at the most.

After picking Dave up at the airport we decided it was now tradition to bring our LAX pick-ups to the Dale Bros Brewery. (Um, if you are reading this Mike, again, gee whiz, we’re sorry about the timing of our new “hiking” style). As soon as we entered, Andy gave us a smile and a greeting from behind the bar. We tried to recall which beers we had in our samplers before; fortunately, Fi (short for Fiorella) remembered from last time some of our choices and helped us out.

Fiorella

That’s the way it’s been on this journey, us seeing folks multiple times, with glad familiarity in the reunion. For the first half of the hike the reunion usually occurred on the trail. Now the reunion could be anywhere.

Speaking of reunions, I’ve detected a pattern to the old hiking friends from the 1985 Continental Divide Expedition coming out to hike with us. I mentioned in the previous post there were a variety of proposed routes for the unfinished trail, including some of our own choosing. Chris, PJ and I chose one of the suggested routes, through the U-shaped San Juan Mountain range, that had us post-holing through snow in late October.

Mike, Jerry, Dave and Cindy chose a more direct route. They cut across the range on a straight path that kept them out of the snow and delivered them to Pagosa Springs ahead of schedule. With that extra time they commandeered our support vehicle and went to the Grand Canyon, where they lounged in 80 degree weather while Chris, PJ and I were camping in the snow. Now those same four have reunited on this hike. Hmm. What went on during that Grand Canyon excursion? 😉

As a side note, us three saps taking the long route through the San Juans were navigating with a 1:250,000 topo. The imprecision of the contours led us to choose a route down from the southern arm that ended with a cliff. We had to take off our packs and get out our rope to belay them down before we were able to climb down ourselves.

We did not bump into people multiple times on the Continental Divide. Indeed, we did not bump into any other thru-hikers at all. As much as I reflect fondly on those remote, pioneering journeys, I must admit that in the reunion of people who not long ago were total strangers there is a measure of comfort and joy … especially when they can remember your beer preferences.