Day 33 4.26.2018 Thursday

Mile 454-458

Well, there really wasn’t a plan for the day. I know we talked about scenarios of what we could hike and what we should hike but none of those scenarios materialized today. Instead it turned into a “Nero” a near-zero day of hiking.

I was kinda over the crowd of hikers at Hiker Heaven. A great place with super generous individuals but just not my kind of place. I like less people and more intimate settings in which to converse but hey, it was still a great experience. Some of the early birds were up before the chickens. I stayed in my tent until I became a little to warm. The majority of the hikers who stayed there were taking the day off so I knew it was time to get back to the trail. Only it didn’t quiet happen that fast.

We took the 10 o’clock ride into town–that is a mile away. Numbers (he hiked the trail last year and never returned to corporate life) dropped us at the grocery store but seeing as we hadn’t had breakfast we figured going into the store on empty stomach would be a disastrous resupply plan. So off we went for a late breakfast/early lunch. Stuffed, we managed to carry our already heavy packs over to the store across the street. I had plenty of food and just picked up some salami, cheese, more Fritos, and 3 meal bars. I’m gonna really try hard to eat EVERYTHING in my food bag this time. No leftovers.

After the store we packed our food bags again. We loitered in front of the store until we decided we needed beverages and ice cream. Back in we went. Our plan of stalling hiking hour was working and it lasted until after a late lunch hour of Mexican food (yay!)

So it was before 5pm when we started out of town. The temperature had already started to drop and we sluggishly started down the road walk out of town. We ironically started with a few others who had just left Hiker Heaven at about the same time. We met O.M.B. (OneManBand) who has been hiking with a guitar. He also was packing out a bucket that he’d been using as a makeshift drum this morning.

I finally met a hiker named Shrink. Justin had started the same day with him and I’d only heard stories. He hiked the AT 2 years ago. I hope to chat with him again soon. He’s currently camped a little bit behind us as he stopped before the climb (which ended up being our only plan).

So, we barely hiked 4 miles before stealth camping tonight. We were setup before 7 and I think we are all just wanting some better rest than what we had last night. The trail (and the horrible hill climb) will be waiting for us tomorrow. There should be a stream in about 6 miles where we can get water tomorrow. After that it’s about another 14 miles before we will see water again. There’s another hiker hostel in that same area although we haven’t made a concrete plan to stay there yet. The weather is supposed to cool and become slightly windy so that will help out our day hiking temps. We could have night hiked this evening with the moon being so bright but our full bellies and heavy packs stopped us short. Again, it will be there tomorrow.