Day 35

17 Miles

Was up a lot of the night with stomach pain, but eventually got some sleep. Woke up to roosters around 4:15 and then in and out of sleep til about 6. Started the road walk just before 7. The group was Jim, Ana, Maverick, and Dean. We started the day taking short breaks every hour since that’s how Jim and Ana are hiking, but we split off at lunch because we like fewer, longer breaks. Along the way, we passed the 500 mile marker!

Towards the end of the road walk we saw a group of hikers hitching a ride in a truck. As they passed a Ziploc flew out of the bed. We walked up and grabbed it (it was someone’s poop kit) and carried it up to the spot where the trail resumes. Ate lunch in the shade a bit away from all other hikers. Looks like most people are hitching around the closure. Which puts most people in a good spot to stay at Hikertown tonight. Might be too many people for us, but we’ll see. The remaining miles were hot, and exposed, but we rolled into Hikertown and it seemed packed. All the “rooms” were taken, but we hung out a bit and were able to snag one. Hikertown is kind of a weird hiker oasis next to the highway. They have all these “rooms”, which are little buildings that look like the set of a bad western movie. The hosts were nice and we were very glad to be able to stay and use the water and sink. We made our dinner chilling on the sofa out front of one of the louder groups’ “room”. They didn’t mind us being there, which was cool, but they later became the group that was keeping everyone awake by being loud and obnoxious late into the evening. Hiker midnight doesn’t care if it’s your birthday, we got miles to do super early tomorrow. Ana needed a spot to crash so we let her take the back section of our “room” and we all turned in early for our big day.