Double zero in Ashland, no hiking.
Since we’re not hiking today, I thought I’d talk a little bit about what we do when we’re not on trail. If this sparks any questions feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them in the next town.
In the thru hiking community any day which you don’t hike is called a zero, as in zero milage hiked. I used to think this was just some in-group lingo for rest days, but after being in the trail for almost four months it has become obvious why the team zero is more appropriate. Just because you’re not hiking, doesn’t mean you’re resting. A day in town consists of so many errands, all of which are substantially less efficient because you don’t have a car nor access to effective public transit, that by the time you’re done it will almost be bedtime. I’ll walk you through our day as it was pretty representative of an average zero.
We woke up in the hostle at 6:30am, because by this time on the trail we’re so used to waking up early it just happens even when I don’t want it to. I spend the first four hours of the day proofreading, uploading, and scheduling blog posts, along with writing any posts which I couldn’t finish the day of—usually this is because we hiked late and I was too tired to do anything but take rough notes and pass out. I also use this time to edit all of my photos from this last section and posting some to Instagram. Maintaining a blog on trail takes up a substantial amount of time, which is why I am so grateful for those of you who have sent me money via my tip jar. On average I put in the work equivalent to a part time job. Your tips are so very appreciated, thank you.
While I write Keith does our laundry like the delight that he is. Seriously, does anybody like doing laundry? I posit the the answer is ‘no’ hence my appreciation of his efforts.
After phone errands, which also consist of emailing my family and the PCTA for whom I am a volunteer writer for the P3 Program working to protect, preserve, and promote the trail, Keith and I head out to grab breakfast and start grocery shopping. Because Ashland is a moderate sized town with a hippie bent I am able to get many of the things my gluten free heart desires at the Ashland Food Co-op. I also spend an arm and a leg on it, but I’m going to have gluten free donuts for breakfast this stretch so it’s fine. This is abundance! I am living my best life, as Oprah would say.
After the store we drop off our initial haul back at the hostel (which is just under a mile each way) and head back out to do run some more errands. Yay!
Keith wants new shorts, which we cannot find at any of the three outdoors stores in town. We then pick up bikes and ride to the south end of town to grab something else, then he wants to ride to go to a brewery on the far side of the freeway—this probably doesn’t really count as errands but I would like the record to show how much I biked my butt around when I would much rather have been sitting immobile on it. After the brewery we go to another grocery store for Keith’s food, some odds and ends that I need, and dinner for that evening. By the time we walk from the store back to the hostle it’s after 7pm and I still haven’t had time to call my family.
It is consistently astonishing how long everything takes and how little rest I feel like I get on these supposed rest days. It is because of this that we usually try and have a day and a half off in town. The ideal being to come in mid-day and do all your errands on the first day so you might have some chance of resting the next day. However, this doesn’t always happen even if you finish hiking early. This is because most of the trail towns aren’t actually on trail, but rather require hitching a ride—a process that can take between five minutes and two hours.
On the somewhat rare occasion we take a double zero the second day in town is where we really get to relax. It’s amazing. If I have finished most of the errands I need to run on the first day, I get to sit around and read on the second day. That’s what I’m doing right now, or rather I was until I figured I should knock out some blog posts so I’m not behind when we hike out tomorrow morning.