Day 46 – Walking Slowly

Chalk up another slow morning at the hostel for this guy! Finally, I got out of bed and headed to the hiker lounge for coffee. While I was there, another hiker was making eggs and hash browns for everyone. So I took a little bit of each to enjoy with my coffee. After sitting and chatting with some of the hikers there, it became funny how many shared connections we had with each other on the trail, even if we hadn’t met before. There is a lot of jumping and cross-pollination between trail families and different hiker bubbles. It’s truly amazing how word of mouth comes along the way, like a giant game of telephone. The network of hikers is huge!

away from home

Once 9am passed, I walked to the post office as I was returning some things I no longer needed. The lady at the post office was very helpful and treated me like a long lost friend! After that, I headed to the hiker shop in town to check it out and buy a couple of weird things. Already hungry again, I headed to Sugar & Flour, a local coffee shop. I bought a large fancy iced coffee, a blueberry muffin, and a breakfast sandwich. They were all magnificent! I really need to do a better job taking pictures of some of the food I’m eating, but when it arrives I usually just tear it up…

I returned to the hostel and packed my bag and got ready to leave. But before I got back on the trail, I needed to work on some blog posts. With a practically full day of hiking yesterday and then doing some of my hiking duties, I didn’t really get a chance to work on my blog yesterday. That means I needed to work on it today before I could get back on the trail. I wrote four blog posts in a couple of hours and caught up on other things while I had Wi-Fi.

Since my right ankle was bothering me so much yesterday, I tried it before I left and found that it still hurt quite a bit. On flat ground there is no pain, but on uneven ground, the tendons on the outside of the ankle become aggravated. I guess I modified it at some point and then it became an overuse issue. So, in preparation for the likelihood that I will need to tape my ankle in the next few days, I decided to shave my ankle so that when I inevitably tape it, I won’t pull out the hair on my legs when I have to remove the tape. I found that although I’m adept at shaving my head, there are some contours on the ankle that if you use a disposable razor, you can cut pretty well. Ahh, learning experiences… Seeing as I cut myself quite badly and needed to bandage it, I decided it would be best to bandage it right away anyway. Taped up and ready to go, I took a shuttle back to the trail and hiked back a little after 3 p.m.

Back to the trail

The hike began with a short stretch along a hillside before reaching a busy bridge. Fortunately, there was a separate pedestrian walkway that I used to cross, followed by a short walk along the road before re-entering the forest. I then made a gentle climb along the river before heading away from it. Around this time I started to smell a strange smell, but I couldn’t place it. The mystery was solved in no time when I saw a landfill to my left.

The climb continued with a slight to moderate incline as I walked slowly and took care of my right ankle. It held up quite well, although I knew the descents would be much harder. It only really bothered me when I went down or when my ankle turned inward, so as long as I avoid that it should be good!

Great trail!

About 3 miles later, while happily walking, I turned the corner and to my not-so-pleasant surprise, there was another snake. Was it a large black rat snake/black racer? Decently thick, I actually could have eaten some as it was quite content lying on the road with me a few meters away. I decided to wait for it for a while and after about a minute it slowly slid out.

The next few miles continued the climb, mainly through switchbacks up the mountain. This turned out to be a pretty good trail to keep a nice moderate pace that didn’t aggravate my ankle while still feeling like progress was being made. I soon arrived at the Rice Field Shelter. Located on top of a ridge, it probably had one of the best views of any shelter so far on the trail. In front of him was a grassy meadow that opened to wide views of the surrounding valleys.

View from in front of the Rice Field shelter

It was quite a place. But it was too early to stop, so I soaked up the views and continued. The spectacular views continued for about half a mile more before the ridge became covered in trees again.

Shortly afterward I arrived at the tent site that had a spring. The last source of water for the next 10 miles, so I made sure to fill my water capacity. I was tempted to stay at the store site, but I wanted to go a little further today to even out the miles over the next few days. So I continue along the ridge. I picked up several deer as I continued as they grazed along the trail. Some ran away, while others watched me with cautious but mild curiosity. As the sun sank into the sky, one could feel the temperature dropping rapidly. Tonight is going to be colder, reaching 30 degrees. Luckily I didn’t send my cold weather gear home to Damascus as I was considering after a few 80° days. Tonight is not the only night next week that will drop into the 30s, as several are forecast to be that way.

I continued into the darkness and turned on the flashlight to cover the last kilometer or so. Unfortunately there were no hidden sites between the last camp and Wills Field. But there was a good spot at Wills Field that I was able to set up. It was almost 10pm when I climbed into my tent for the night.

The flowers are a bloom

Statistics for day 46:

12 miles

3,232′ ascent, 1,427′ descent

Angel’s Rest Hiker Hostel at Wills Field (649.5)

9DSLC…

Stove use times: 7

Snakes seen on the trail: 4

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