Chap. 34 – Five hundred and fire evacuation

Just after the 500 mile marker, we could see smoke in the distance. As we approached the ridge and saw the flames, we realized where all the smoke was going: right toward Hikertown, our destination for the night.

I woke up this morning surrounded by bushes of poodle dogs. Luckily, none of that fell on me during the night! I quickly packed up and soaked some cold oats for breakfast. The last shop had a flavor I hadn’t tried before, caramel macchiato, so I had to try it. Delicious!

Boostie and I walked together most of the morning, although I got ahead of him a couple of times. One of the rare times I walked today, walking through thick underbrush, I almost stepped on something deadly. Just in front of my right foot, a baby rattlesnake slithered quickly out of the way. As soon as I came out of the brush, I saw him looking at me and trying to rattle his little tail. The rattle was so small that it made no sound. I love snakes, don’t get me wrong, but baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than adults. If that’s the only rattlesnake I see on this trail, I won’t complain.

Find the baby rattlesnakes. It’s scary how well they fit together!

Just before our first nap of the day, I saw two more snakes. At that moment, Boostie was with me again. The first of the two was a racer snake, and it took off quickly when it saw me jumping towards it on the path. That may have been the biggest snake I’ve seen here so far! After that, we saw a gopher snake sunning itself right next to the trail. The pattern looks like a rattlesnake, so Boostie made me back off. As soon as we saw the head, we knew we were safe! He kept sticking his tongue out to see what we were doing, before finally sliding over.

Our big mile marker for the day, 500 miles, turned into a quick nap under a pine tree right next to the trail. That’s when we noticed the smoke and checked our phones to see what the status was. Most of us have the Watch Duty app and were notified that Hikertown was at evacuation level two. We started making just-in-case plans: If we hit the road and couldn’t get to town, we might have had to hitchhike somewhere else for the night. Fortunately, we saw helicopters, planes and fire trucks arrive. The fire was extinguished in about 30 minutes. The group of us clapped and cheered from the top of the ridge.

«Hell yeah, firefighters!»

You can see the burn scar in the distant field here.

98 acres burned, but no one was injured. When Boostie and I hit the road, we hitchhiked to Neenach Market before even heading to Hikertown. We’ve heard interesting stories about the place, so we thought the market could be better. The man who disturbed us told us that he had been preparing his family to evacuate this morning and was relieved by how quickly the fire was put out. We are all relieved!

At the market, Boostie and I bought burgers and onion rings. I had several cold drinks, he had a couple of cold beers, and then we set up camp behind the market. Sleeping behind a gas station right off the interstate may not be the safest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but honestly, I slept really well and can’t complain!

My humble abode to spend the night

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