[pct-l] The Herd and also cash back at P.O.'s

[Georgi Heitman]

`Pygmy...Yes, as Donna says...the Herd not only exists, last summer it was alive and well still when it reached Old Station.  And...it was the best part of three weeks long.  I would guess that because of the late April snow, hikers that had gotten spread out on the trail a bit, would get bunched up again because the trail ahead would be impassable.  How many of the Class of '06 got stuck in Independence, for example?  And pretty much left in small groups over maybe a 4 day stretch?  Lots of folk probably stayed an extra day in Tahoe, but when they got back to the T.H., they just slipped in amongst that day's hikers, take a few from one day, add them to another.  We fed double digit numbers daily for as I said...around three weeks.  In '05, it was the Wave, and they were sobos.  It would appear that they never did break up that much, all the way thru OR and WA.  A few got far enough ahead to warn us...we had time to stock up a bit.  Last summer, we didn't have a clue that we were going to get those numbers day after day.
And then there was mention of money at the P.O.  I don't know what it's like in other small towns, but in Old Station, for some reason I've yet to figure out, checks can't be cashed on Saturdays, not even to pay for stamps with no cash back.  I think it has something to do with the fact that our assistant P.M. works Saturdays and she doesn't have the authority to accept checks, I'm not even that sure about using credit cards, now that I think of it, would that be because the card swiping machine is locked up if the P.M. isn't on board?  I'll try to find out...didn't know about the check thing til last Saturday when I asked Dennie to buy a roll of stamps for me.
In O.S. the ATM is at the Old Station Fill-um-UP at the other end of town...tho the store next to the P.O. can give money back when a charge card is used.
Never hurts to check in advance of arrival.
Georgi