Flashbacks of flash floods in the CDT

This morning I woke up fairly early at my campsite within the clump of trees. It was incredibly cold this morning and last night! I’m glad I was sleeping with my filter and my water. When I finally got up, I made some hot coffee and then slowly started the day. I’m not incredibly far from Grant City. Hopefully I’ll be walking there relatively early this afternoon.

I finally packed up and started walking again. I would spend most of the day on dirt roads. My feet felt much better after a good night’s sleep. I think that once I start to irritate the nerves there is no turning back. When something like this blows up, the only way to stop it is to restart it overnight.

During the first hour of the day I accidentally continued down a dirt road that I shouldn’t have. Luckily, I figured it out pretty early and was able to connect other dirt roads to my route. You can never let your guard down here. I swear every time I stop looking at the map I accidentally veer off course. However, I did a better job of staying the course after that. And after walking on dirt roads for about another hour, I finally came across an actual trail again.

After that, there was a bit of climbing left. But I knew I wouldn’t do much else that day. I would continue the path for another hour or two. Finally I would emerge onto a forest road again. And I could continue on a couple different forest service roads to save a little mileage in my day. If I stayed on the red line route, it would be about 31 miles to Grants for the day. But it looks like I could get closer to 27 miles with the help of a couple of shortcuts.

While walking this morning, I also had a crazy realization. Normally, I count my mileage at the end of each day. I’ve been keeping track of my daily mileage and my cumulative mileage throughout the year. But sometimes I forget to do the calculations at night. So this morning, while walking along dirt roads, I finally had a chance to do some calculations. That’s when I realized that last night I officially surpassed 8,000 miles for the year! I just crossed in the afternoon thanks to my 41 mile day yesterday. Which means I’ve officially broken the women’s record for most miles traveled in a year, hands down. I’ve gotten a lot of comments from people about one or two women who have run or jogged more miles than that in a year. But I really don’t think it’s appropriate to compare those things. That’s why I specifically say that I have surpassed the most kilometers traveled in a year. It’s incredibly impressive that someone has run 9-10,000 miles in a year. That’s really exceptional. But there’s a big difference between running every day for a year and backpacking and living outdoors all the time. Hiking is a very different beast.

I spent some time this morning thinking about getting over 8,000 miles a year. In reality, it’s just a hard number to decipher. At the beginning of the walk, I could see people’s eyes glaze over as you talked about how far you’d come during the year. But now it’s hard to even understand it. Even having been here day after day all year long.

I think one of the craziest things about having hiked over 8,000 miles this year is the average. Just this year I got 17 zeros in a row when I was injured. Then I did a few short days to relax again. The next two weeks I only averaged 23 miles a day. Not to mention that throughout the year, I have taken numerous regular days. Which have been necessary for rest, travel and bad weather. I imagine that at the end of the hike, I would have added between 30 and 35 zero days to the year. Those 17 straight days certainly didn’t help. But even so, I’ve still averaged 27 miles a day over the year. A marathon a day. But in reality, much more than that. I certainly had to put in a lot of miles to make up for all those days off due to injury.

It was a really nice day and time passed quickly. I had a lot of things on my mind that occupied me. And he was eager to get to the city to spend the night and rest and eat. After a while I was able to get out on nice dirt roads. It was a delightful change of pace after recently walking on very rocky and uneven dirt roads. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t have to think much. The quality of the roads would definitely have ups and downs. But throughout the day, in general, he got better and better.

Some of the beautiful scenery on the way into town.

I was able to multitask while walking down the road. And finally I reached a trailhead and an actual sidewalk. I would continue along the main road for another 2-3 hours. It was incredibly hot as I walked along the road. But I still took advantage of the time to edit everything I could. As I got closer and closer to Grants I finally got service that was nice. Then I did a little multitasking while continuing to walk.

Around this time, I also received a text from a hiker named Fizz. I saw it in Salida before leaving to finish the PCT. But we first met on the Appalachian Trail in 2023. When I returned to the CDT recently, I approached him. He was one of the only people who had caught up with what I knew. I was just curious to know where he might be haunted these days. and in the true nature of the trail, of course I had just arrived in town! So maybe I’ll be able to see it sometime today, which would be great.

This section of the CDT follows a path until it reaches Grants. And go through a prison! It’s the only time on one of the Triple Crown trails where I think you pass through the prison. although you will certainly pass through jails or prisons on the Florida Trail and on parts of the Alabama Trail. Or at least you could depending on the route you take. When I stopped by today I was having a good time. I was just singing music and minding my own business. Then some prisoners yelled at me! I didn’t realize it was possibly a men’s and women’s facility. Or one part is for men and another part is for women. Because when I passed through a section of the house and fenced off the space, some ladies yelled at me. That was very funny.

This section of the trail is also incredibly memorable to me because of last year’s flash flood incident. The last time I was here I entered Grants between 4 and 5 in the morning. We ended up driving about 80-85 miles total to get to the city. Because we hiked 26 miles, set up camp, immediately got flooded, and then had to hike an additional 55 miles. It was really interesting today walking sections of the trail that I had only done at night before. Due to the timing of our flood, we ended up having to walk two full nights completely in the dark. They were wild times.

Then I continued and headed to the town of Grants. I guess the trail doesn’t exactly go through the city. But it’s nice and easy to veer into town before getting back on the road. Either way, this next section of the trail involves a lot of road walking. When I got to town, the first thing I did was head to the Asian buffet. I texted Fizz to see if he wanted to meet up and get something to eat. That seemed like the easiest way to catch up. And it turned out he was staying at the place right across the street, so he came over right away.

Hitchhiking is not allowed in prison.

The food at the buffet was absolutely delicious. I ate a plate and then Fizz came and joined me. Then we just hung out, ate a bunch of food, and caught up. It was a really nice moment. Most of the time, when I get to the city, I eat alone, refuel alone, and stay alone in the city. So any chance to enjoy a meal with someone else and in the company of another person is always wonderful.

After eating a bunch of food, I had a couple bowls of ice cream. My buffet secret is that you take one of the hot sugary donuts from the buffet and then put a scoop of ice cream on top. That’s delicious. After two of those and a little more conversation, we decided to head out. I said goodbye to Fizz and then continued through the city. It was really wonderful to see him again and I’m not sure if our paths will cross again this year.

From there, I walked to the Super Eight and checked into my room. Then I dropped off my stuff and walked to Walmart to restock. It’s crazy how fast time flies. I felt like I had arrived in the city early but it was already too late. I spent way too much time at Walmart perusing the aisles. Then finally returned to the hotel to relax for the rest of the night.

I still needed to organize my stuff, carry everything, shower, and do a ton of editing. Also, I plan to leave tomorrow at a reasonable time. Back in the room I did just that. I organized all my things and relaxed as much as I could. I bought a lot of different things at the supermarket. Over the course of the night I ended up eating 4 cinnamon rolls, which were delicious. And all kinds of other delicacies. Then I finally called it a night.

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