Today is Mother’s Day. It’s the first time I haven’t been able to talk to my mom on this day. Most of the time I have reception, but for the last week or two I’ve mostly been without it. I was glad that I called her when we were in Marion.
This morning was chilly. We woke up snuggled in our bags and didn’t want to leave. I convinced Warthog to give me an extra 15 or 20 minutes. After that, I knew I would really be pushing my luck, so I got up.
We were camping next to Milk and Cookies. I didn’t realize it, but Milk was cowboy camping about ten feet from where we set up. I apologized to both of them for getting in so late. I felt bad that we undoubtedly kept them up.
Warthog and I hit the trail at 9:06a. We hiked about two miles and stopped. According to our Guthook app, we were at the 25% mark. I celebrated it even more than hitting 500 miles. It’s a marker that both excites me and makes me feel a bit sick because I’m enjoying this so much. Either way, we are a quarter of the way through the trail. How amazing!
Warthog and I made a marker with the “25%” drawn out in sticks so other hikers could celebrate. We waited until our friends showed to get excited about it all with them. Kirby was first. Soon after, Atlas arrived with Aquaman and Sapphire. We hadn’t seen those two since Warthog’s family came out. I was surprised to see them hiking with Atlas. More and more familiar faces are popping up from our previous bubble. It’s feeling like home again.
We hiked the rest of the morning with Kirby. Atlas went on ahead. We saw him again at lunch. Then Snow Monkey and Wonder Woman caught up to us. The afternoon we hiked playing games and singing songs.
It was a beautiful day to hike. The terrain was a little more difficult than we’ve had lately, but way easier still than the last couple of states. Tomorrow we have a beast of a climb. But we’ve got this. The only thing that makes me nervous is that my pack is still really heavy from our resupply. It might be a longer, tougher day. But I know I’ll get over those mountains.
Just two miles short from our goal tonight we hit trail magic. It was Lucky and his dad again. He told us yesterday that he would be at this spot and we’ve been hiking all day with it in mind. There was a sea of hikers there when we arrived, people we had been leapfrogging all day. The trail magic was a much needed break. We stayed about a half an hour to 45 minutes before we decided to press on.
In those two miles we saw a skull (maybe deer?) and a water moccasin. Warthog was the one to point out the snake. It was curled up on a log about four feet away while we were crossing on a boardwalk.
This afternoon the trail went through a lot of private property. In earlier entries I mentioned that it sometimes does this. I wasn’t sure how they negotiate the land use. While we were at the trail magic, a local couple stopped by. They are opening a hostel next year. They were talking with Lucky’s dad and Warthog overheard them saying that many locals (not them personally) in the area don’t like the hikers because back when the trail was being put in, the government just took the land from them. It makes me feel a bit bad now that we go through their property. I’m glad for the opportunity, but hope that bitterness isn’t a common theme. It certainly didn’t seem to be in Marion. Everyone was friendly there.
When we arrived at the shelter two miles after the trail magic, we looked for Atlas and Lotus. We couldn’t find them so we checked the trail log. They had left a note saying they pressed on another 1.1 miles to a camping spot. It was still early enough and 1.1 miles is only about thirty minutes for us, so we all kept going. On the last river crossing I trusted a rock that I shouldn’t have and both feet got submerged. Dang it! Wet feet again!
When we arrived at the camping area, Lotus and Atlas already had their tents up. Atlas had prepped a fire. They had only been ahead of us by about an hour. We all ate dinner together, started the fire, and chatted until later than normal. Finally, exhaustion kicked in and we went our separate ways to our tents. It’s a beautiful night, not too cold or too hot. Our sites are next to a river so we can hear the water rushing near us. It’s always a favorite of mine to be near a river. It’s fantastic white noise ands helps me sleep better.
– ansel