The perfect hang, good dinner (knorr Mexican rice with chicken burritos + cheese and hot sauce), porch mode and nearly silent forest (for maybe the first time) lead to a great night of sleep. I was out before 8 and woke up at first light, a little after 6. With only a little over 11 miles to go today by 1, I wasn’t in a big hurry. But I seemed to be the only one 😝. Like moths to a flame, 5-6 THs passed me while I was making breakfast / packing up camp all with the goal of getting to trail days today.
I was getting to trail days too – just via car for the last 10 miles. I finished up and left camp a little after 7. I stopped at the near by stream to get some water. Wasn’t going to make that mistake two days in a row. Another TH passed me while I was filtering.
There was trail magic at the road about a mile from camp. It had “captured” all the THs that passed me. I’d just had breakfast so grabbed an orange, said thanks to the trail angel and moved on. It was partly sunny to start and I was at a low enough elevation that it was reasonably warm as well. The terrain and slope were both pretty easy to so the miles melted away.
At the next gap there was even more trail magic. I was a little ahead of schedule and Katie (my friend that was picking me up) was a little behind (had to get ice) so I stopped for a burger and some pulled pork. Thanking the trail angels again as I left, I finished up the last 4 miles of the day a little before 1 and Katie rolled up a few minutes later.
We drove to town, parked and packed up for the walk to tent city. The long term parking was by the city pool and they had free showers for hikers, so I jumped in. Been a minute since a communal shower 😝. After the shower we walked over to tent city, found a spot and set up. Then it was off to the vendor area (already picked up a titanium flask and a replacement cork massage ball) and to town for some beers and BBQ. We swung back to the tent to drop some stuff and ended the night listening to the band.
Ended isn’t quite accurate. Since as we made our way back to the tent city we heard the drum circle from the “party” section of the tent city (up in the woods) and echoes of the rave as well. We were in the “quieter” section of the tent city…but that was all relative.
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