Day 123

0 Miles

Breakfast from the Bridgeside Restaurant was okay food, but the best part was sitting with Studio 54, Bearslayer, and Captain Fantastic. Sharing stories, talking about trail life, and general plans for the next few weeks. It’s fun to commiserate with fellow hikers who have also had the “do I want to keep going?” internal struggle. Some decide to tough it out, others bail and go home. Everyone is on their own journey and needs to make the decision for themselves. We will keep moving north, but the closer we get to Canada the more we want to be done. Town luxuries are appealing and the pain from hiking everyday takes its toll, but to quit now would be disappointing. So, onward and upward; plenty more to see and experience yet. We indulged in some ice cream at the Eastwind Drive-In before heading down to the main Trail Days area. The vendors had already setup, but they hadn’t opened it to hikers yet, so we waited outside the fence for a bit. Once they did open it up, we walked around the booths checking out the various new tents and food items being marketed. One booth selling food had a pull-up bar setup to challenge hikers to hang on it for 90 seconds to win one of their meals. I could only hold on for 62. All of my upper body strength is gone. At another booth they were selling slanted blocks that were supposed to help correct your foot position while walking. They also had a 50-calf-raise challenge that Marie completed without issue, which earned her a free bandana. Ultimately we left without buying anything or taking much swag. The post office was going to close and we needed to get our bounce box mailed out before it did so we went back to the room to pack that up. The post office was busy with a line out the door, but we were able to get our boxes handed over before they closed. We heard that the fish and chips place nearby was good so we got some for a late lunch. We didn’t really have any other town chores to do so we went back to the Gorges brewery to have a couple beers and hang out. We saw Studio 54 walking by and invited him to join us. We all had a great time hanging out the rest of the evening, except for a brief time that a red-headed hiker joined us only to complain to the waitstaff that their QR menu system was insulting. He left shortly after, thankfully. The rest of the night was a lot of fun chatting with Studio before we went back to the room.