Day 45: Revolt to the rescue yet again

Miles Hiked: 0

Total Milage: 667.5

*** I didn’t count any of the miles I did north of Cumbres Pass***

Location: Pagosa Springs

Today 12 pack and I woke up and started hiking by 6:30am. I was anxious to get to town and start the process of getting to Wyoming as fast as I can. 12 pack also decided he wants to flip as well. I’m very glad because I would definitely not attempt to hitch across an entire state alone. Not only that but I’ll have someone else to hike with. I don’t expect to see any other hikers in Wyoming until we catch up to Jenga and a few other people he has been hiking around. Speaking of Jenga, we got a call from him right before we started descending back to the highway. He is really excited for us to flip up to Wyoming and gave us the details about where to get back on trail and so on. It was great to hear from him and I can’t wait to see him again! We continued to descend and eventually came to a creek crossing. The first time I ran across the log over it. This time 12 pack warned me that it was icy. He made it across, so I decided to try the log again as well. I slipped and fell straight into the ice cold creek almost immediately. It’s the first time I’ve ever fallen off a log into a creek and it definitely shook me up. Luckily I fell in upstream of the log and only my waist down was wet besides some parts of my shirt. I immediately got out as fast as I could and kept hiking just because it was so cold. Thank goodness the sun was up! And thank goodness it was a shallow stream. When we arrived at the highway I gave my boyfriend a call and we got a hitch to town in the back of a pick up truck with a few other hikers. They had all just crossed the Colorado border. It was l new people I haven’t met yet. It was refreshing to see some new faces.

When we got to Chama it was time to get business done. I grabbed some coffee from Rio Chama, a sandwich from Subway, and headed to the Y motel. There I talked to some other hikers while eating my sandwich including Melissa, Old Head, and Melon. Before leaving to hitch hike to Pagosa, I returned the snow shoes I was borrowing and made a sign. 12 pack and I stood on the road for about 40 minutes before getting picked up by a nice family heading through Pagosa. It was about a 40 minute drive before we got dropped off in down town.

When we got to Pagosa 12 pack and I walked the rest of the way to Revolts house. We were so happy to see each other! We all hung out for a little bit and I received my first package in the mail from someone besides myself. I love you mom! She sent me lots of drink mixes including chai tea lattes and liquid IVs which are my favorites! I also got a ton of peanut M and MS, cashews, two mountain house breakfasts, toilet paper, and almond butter packets. She even decorated the box very sweetly. I can’t wait to get home and see my family when I’m finished. We were discussing plans on how to get to Wyoming as fast as we could and it seemed like the only way was to hitch hike. Public transit via bus would most likely take longer and there were no rental cars available at all. 12 pack and I were invited to stay the night at Revolts so we took him up on it. We wanted to spend time with our friend and we knew we wouldn’t make that much forward progress tonight anyways. After that decision Revolt started to make us some of his specialty cocktails. He told us that he would make us tiki drinks when we came to see him in Pagosa and he lived up to the promise! They were delicious.

While we were enjoying our cocktails I got a call from my sister, Itchy. As soon as she found out what we were doing she offered to drive us to Wyoming without hesitation. She hadn’t even made it home from her vacation yet! She drove straight from Denver to Revolts to stay the night and hang out with us all. I couldn’t believe how lucky I am! I absolutely despise driving and an extra 16 hours round trip sounds miserable. We made sure to let her know we’d pay her for gas plus her time!

While we were waiting for her to arrive, we went to Revolt and his wife Julie’s favorite bar in town. Motel SOCO was so much fun! We even got to meet see of their friends. Afterwards we went back to Revolts house and they made us hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner. I was so hungry and it was delicious! Itchy eventually showed up and we had a great night hanging out together. Thank you so much to Revolt and Julie for hosting us all!