Miles hiked: 8
Oracle Ridge to Oracle
I only slept about two hours last night but woke up with the sunrise regardless. I thought about just going back to sleep but the thought of the incoming storm got me up and moving. All night long my tent flapped around like a parachute and the foot end of my tarp collapsed as the guy line that held my trekking pole up came off of the tent stake from the wind blowing so hard. I also discovered that my tarp bag had flown away in the night as well. Bummer. I was walking down the trail by 6am happy I was up and moving. The sky was already overcast. I continued down the trail that was a dirt road. Today would be more downhill than up. It was only four miles to the trail into town. And about 7 miles until I would be on the main street. I decided to take the walk in route into town and walk out of town the next day to cut some useless miles out of the trail in Oracle State park and avoid bad weather. I was more than happy about the short cut. The trail stayed mostly on a grassy ridge all the way to town. As soon as I got on the “Cody trail” it started raining but not too bad. As I joined the pavement for the last mile I remembered that today is a holiday for some people. Easter. I looked up a breakfast place I was so excited to eat at based on their menu and gave them a call. Unfortunately they were closed due to the rain. I had a feeling a lot of other things in town might be closed due to the holiday. Not that this town had much anyways.
Once in town I grabbed a croissant from the market and sat down under a pavilion outside the library. I contacted the trail angel who offered to host me. I still hadn’t heard anything from her since I was in Summerhaven yesterday afternoon. I spent the morning writing my blog posts and catching up with my friends and family on the phone. By noon I still hadn’t heard anything. The only place left to stay in this town was a really expensive guest ranch. $160 for a room. My family graciously gave me some cash towards it to split the cost. I was so thankful. In all the thousands of miles I have hiked, I’ve never had to pay more than $70 to stay anywhere and I’ve never had a hotel room to myself either. I can’t believe it had to come to this. I always thought it would be such a treat for this to happen! It was still downpouring as I walked to the ranch. Luckily they let me check in early. I immediately took a shower and got my laundry started then I laid down on the bed. I ended up walking to the dollar store in the freezing rain to get microwave Mac and cheese for dinner. I was shivering so bad when I got there as my rain gear isn’t remotely close to water proof and I more or less have tissue paper for pants. I got a $10 pair of cheap leggings. It’s been way colder than I thought it would be. Thankfully a lady behind me in line gave me a ride back to my room. The wall back would have been rough on the side of the fast road in the dark. I was so happy to lay down eat my dinner, take a bath and get to talk to my fiance on the phone. The warm bed was luxurious. I was so happy to be warm and out of the storm. It’s my favorite thing to save town days for bad weather when it happens. I’ve had more stormy wet weather than ever expected on this trail. I felt so silly not being more prepared.
Happy Trails!
-Early Bird
Des Hikes Thru 