[pct-l] (no subject)

[csiechert@hotmail.com (Carl Siechert)]

> Callahans is a wonderful place to stay and eat along the trail and the
first beer for PCT hikers is free.

Time for another reminiscence from those hikers of yore, the 1977 Kelty
Kids...

We had heard great things about Callahans, perhaps the greatest being that
the dinners included all the soup, salad, and spaghetti you can eat. So we
donned our tennis shoes (which were our camp shoes, not our primary hiking
shoes!) and dashed about 23 miles (one of our longest days--hey, you try
schlepping a 60-pound pack!) to Callahans. Salivating a little more as we
got closer and closer, we got there before dinner time--only to find a big
sign: CLOSED MONDAY.

We hadn't had a layover day since Mammoth seven weeks earlier, so we decided
to camp right on their front porch and wait until they opened on Tuesday.

The food, of course, was very good (not that we were particularly finicky
about what we'd eat) and Randy (?) Callahan, the bartender, only charged us
for about every other Blitz beer we drank. But alas, the original offer
wasn't quite true: they cut us off after the three of us had devoured four
family-size platters of spaghetti. Someone at another table felt sorry for
us and gave us their leftovers.

On Tuesday night, of course, we couldn't camp on their front porch because
they were open for business, but the Callahans let us lay our stuff out on
the lawn behind the restaurant. Norm went out to sleep, while Bill, Bob
McAlister (one of the Michiganders), and I stayed at the bar putting away
Blitz beers until the wee hours.

Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Carl
1977 Kelty Kid