Day 21: Oops

Miles: 23.5

Total Milage: 340

Location: Mile 437.5 of CDT

Today I woke up on the small couch at the toaster house. I didn’t sleep great last night because I was uncomfortable but it was nice to have a roof over my head for once. I took down my tent in the yard and packed up my bag. I walked to the post office to mail a card before meeting my trail family at “Pie Town Pies” for breakfast. I ordered a pie plate breakfast consisting of eggs, potatoes, and toast. It was more filling than it looked. Since everything in Pie Town happens very slowly, we didn’t leave until 11:30am although we arrived at 9am when they opened. The ladies at the Pie shop are so nice I didn’t even mind that it took so long. I’ve been on the other side of the counter to get me here so I’m pretty patient and understanding of wait staff.

The hike today was an extremely long and hot road walk out of town. I was so glad I had company for it. I mostly hiked with 12 pack all day but also with Jenga, Free Fall, Melissa and Melon. At one point Melon, 12 Pack and I were so bored we started playing a game with Jelly beans. Melon had a bag of jelly belly beans that are a variety of tasty flavors and sometimes not so great ones such as vomit or soap. Melon would pick a bean out of the bag and 12 Pack and I would guess it’s flavor before he ate it. Sometimes Melon couldn’t even tell what the beans tasted like, it was funny.

When we arrived at the spot we planned to camp, we realized we made a big mistake. Tomorrow we planned to meet some trail angels we met at the Jordan Hot springs in the Gila River. We were supposed to hike only 10 miles tomorrow to meet them at Cerro Brilliante. Around 8pm the night before we realized we had a solid 25 miles left to hike to that location before noon. When we made plans our map originally calculated straight line distance to the location and not the true hiking distance alone our route. I was SO frustrated. I was not ready for the miles at all. We toyed with the idea of a 24 hour challenge (hiking as far as you can in 24 hours). In the end we decided to see if they would be able to accommodate us two hours later than planned. They agreed! So we hiked another 3 miles with the plan of getting up at 4am to hike the remaining 22 miles before 2:30pm. The only good part about the situation is that we had an AMAZING sunset that lasted for quite a while. I’m looking forward to the trail magic tomorrow and collapsing for the rest of the day once I finish the miles.

We were supposed to find a water cache at camp but that turned out to not be the case. There was a very confusing comment written on our mapping application. When we got to the spot we were aiming for there was a puddle of water around a cow tank. Our options were to suck it up and filter it or hike backwards a mile. I decided I’ve drank worse water before and filtered it. Afterwards I set up a cowboy camp with everyone else. I was so tired I didn’t even want to eat but I made a tuna wrap before I went to bed.

Today I started to get blisters all over my feet. I’m trying hard not to freak out any time something goes wrong with my feet but I’ve been worrying about it all day. My left heel has been tender and sore since we left Davilla. All of this desert sand gets inside my shoes, makes my socks crusty, and irritates my skin so much. My Insoles have already delaminated from all the dust. I’m excited for dirt trails some day!

Happy Trails!

-Early Bird