Day 123: Wise River

Miles Hiked: 18.5

Total Milage: 2113.5

Today I woke up very early so that we could get to town as early as possible. The goal was to get to town, resupply, charge all of our things and get back out to trail. The hard part about the plan is that we will be trying to hitch hike on a road that isn’t very busy so it could take a while. It was dark when we hiked out of the campground around 5:45 am. It was a 6mile road walk until we hit a paved road with a small amount of traffic. I enjoyed watching the sunrise as I walked. Right when we got to the road, we got super lucky. A girl who works for the forest service was on her way to work in Wise River so she picked us up. We made it to town by 8am. I couldn’t believe our luck!

The town of Wise River has one small mercantile store, a post office, a cafe, and one hotel/saloon that was closed on the day we got there. We got dropped off at the mercantile where we did a resupply that was pretty expensive for what I got. Small towns with one place to buy food are always expensive. The ladies at the store were super nice and let us hang out on the porch while we got to charge our things inside. I was thrilled with how accommodating they were. I was able to eat an orange, an apple, and a chicken salad sandwich on some hearty wheat bread while we waited. I also took a nap behind their campfire wood storage container. There was no cell service in town so it was a great excuse to lay down and do nothing while my things charged. Lots of fire men fighting the local fires went to the store while we waited.

At 11am our stuff was finally charged up. We walked down the street to the cafe that just opened to grab a snack before hitting the trail. They had WiFi so I called Luke while I ate my sweet potato fries. I also found out that they offered showers, laundry, and tenting. I wish I knew ahead of time. I’m currently going on my longest streak without a shower or sleeping in a bed so I’m going to keep it going until the next town. Around noon we were ready to leave so we walked to the road to start hitch hiking back to the trail. Not many cars drove by. It took about two hours for us to get a ride. A very nice man took us back to the trail in an old jeep with the top down. It was pretty fun to be honest. It was 3pm and blazing hot with no shade when we got dropped off.

After we got dropped off we walked about 5 miles down a dirt road before taking a break. My pack felt really heavy. This time I packed out a glass jar of jelly, peanut butter, and tortillas to make PB and J wraps. I made one for a pre dinner snack while we took a break. It was incredibly hot and I was sweating a lot. We walked a bit further before crossing the paved road we hitched into town on for the second time. When we crossed the road we saw another hiker in front of us. I got excited. It ended up being “Sweep” who we hung out with in Lima. We all ate dinner and camped together tonight. It was great to have another hiker to hang out with for once!

Happy Trails

– Early Bird