So Toothless has become notoriously opposed to “spicy” food despite us eating and offering it at home since he was an infant.

But Little Bear Hostel only had the flaming hot variety of snacks.

Thankfully Toothless was all in on trying it out and was liking the spiciness. So today we ate spicy Cheetos and spicy Doritos. And it was hilarious. He would eat a bunch. Then go “ahh. Too spicy!” Then drink some Gatorade. Then try again. Then pretend be was breathing out fire.

We pretended the spicy snacks were helping him warm up in the shade.

We were determined to get to PVC and made good time without really trying.

Other Lil Flier’s hat falling off in the wind on the road from Little Bear Hostel (Natasha walked back to pick it up) we didn’t really have any setbacks.

The trail was cruisy. The kids were generally happy.

We rolled into PVC at almost exactly noon. Ate a large meal. Used the bathroom. Tipped and got a ride to Idyllwild. Natasha had a suite booked at Strawberry Creek. It’s not downtown. It’s a bit of a walk. But a nice enough suite. She didn’t mean to book it – she thought she was booking at Idyllwild Inn. It’s a common complaint and the owners will defend it like it’s your fault. I think they should do a better job on their website.

We got checked into our hotel. We got our bounce box and groceries for the night and morning (all microwavable), then went to the gear store to get microspikes and snow baskets for our poles. We found a pair of dirty girl gaiters that fit Toothless. Hopefully those solve the constant stops to dump sand out of his shoes. The snow baskets don’t exactly fit our poles. But I think we will make them fit.

Dinner. Ice cream. Crash. Tomorrow is a zero.