At the restaurant in Kennedy Meadows

Lady: And are you accomp- are you guys both doing this together?

Us: Yes.

Lady: Right. Ok. Wow. That adds a whole new twist to it, huh?

Dylan: Well its definitely different from

Lady: you guys have never taken a trip to the mountains together…

Pete: Yep that would add a twist.

(everyone laughs)

Dylan: Luckily we don’t have any plot-writers along on the trip.

Pete: But actually that’s kept us sane in a lot of ways.

Lady: Really?

Dylan: Yeah, and there’s a, I don’t know. It would just be totally different doing it on your own. So far, the only people we’ve met doing it alone have been like, middle-aged men. Which really doesn’t fit the profile of what most people think.

(laugh)

Dylan: Pacific Crest Trail hikers, you know. They say, “Gotta do it when you’re young…”

Pete: That’s what people always say, (crotchety voice) “Aw you gotta do it when you’re young…”

Lady: Well yeah, I’ve read that too, there’s some guys who are just, you know, have their midlife crisis or whatever…

(garble)

Dylan: We met this guy whose been doing it for 22 years.

Pete: Oh, yeah. This one guy me met does some kind of crazy walk every year. For the last 20 years.

Lady: Really? Well, I don’t, yeah, cause I heard from um, a friend of mine who’s done a lot of hiking that, his wife just died or something, and that was his way of dealing, you know, just like hike from Mexico to Canada.

Pete: Sure.

Dylan: It definitely puts a certain kind of sobriety in your life.

Pete: Yeah.

Lady: So are you from Ridgecrest too?

Dylan: No. I’m from New Mexico.

Lady: Oh, ok.

Pete: I met him, when ah, we grew up together in Wyoming. Went to, we moved here, I lived here for like 4 years.

Lady: Ah huh.

(bell rings, random stuff happens, talk about hats, gets hard to make out, goes on a long time)

(none of the Rigdgecrest interview got taped, brief report on Ridgecrest R&R)