CDT Day 52 (7/9/23)
Miles 1223.3 (Red line 1436.3)- 1241.3 (Red line 1454.3) (18 miles)
Verbatim
Today I did eighteen miles between 2pm and 8pm. I was moving! And I had to, because the mosquitoes were terrible! Walking north of Steamboat is straight swamp after swamp after swamp. I was slapping mosquitoes off my legs and shoulders the whole way, even while moving. And even now under my tarp I’m sharing space with them. I’m journaling under fire, hahaha.
I had a funny morning. I woke up at 5:45 with the sun streaming through Glenn and Margie’s upstairs window. My mom had texted yesterday saying I needed to call and again this morning saying she was up early. The urgency of these texts, and the fact that her being up early makes no sense to my two hour later time zone, made me call at 5:55. I figured something was up with grandpa. My mom just wanted to chat… Which is fine. But at 6am? On my rest day?
Breakfast with Glenn, Margie, and Towhee was pleasant. Margie played piano for us afterwards! She’s very good. I think I could rent from them if I wanted move to Steamboat this winter for work…
I met Pepé at the Ski Haus. They didn’t have any Polaroid film! So I went to Walmart and bought some for them. :) I think Towhee forgot to Venmo me for their half of the stay..
I also talked to some cute kids today about trail! “Do you pack 100 food?”
Post Note
Oh man. Before I forget. Those kids were so cute. I amend yesterday’s rant about not wanting to stop to talk to people while under bug attack. If you’re between the ages of 4 and 8 and are running around in the grass and trees playing with your cousins while simultaneously asking me about thruhiking I will spend all day chatting with you. One of the littler ones asked how long the trip was. I told him it would take 100 days. “Do you pack 100 food?!” he asked with wide eyes. “No” I said, “I pack four food”. How do you explain the concept of resupplying to a four year old?
Also. Moms. You hate to love em sometimes. The call was so amusing to me because my mom is always worried about the perceived lack of rest I experience on these trips. “You need to take a sabbath, honey”. You’re probably right mom. I do. I was trying.
And now we come to the Ski Haus… When I flipped up to WY in 2022, on account of the snow and fires down in CO and NM, I first arrived at the Ski Haus. I was really lonely, tired, and had slept in the bushes in the town park overnight. I remember showing up to this random gear shop to ask if they thought my hiking up in the mountains was reasonable. I talked to Brenda who told me that no, it was not a smart idea to go up there (if there was too much snow to hike in Southern Colorado I’m not sure why I thought there’d be less in Northern Colorado). I was understandably dissapointed. My plan had stymied. But then she offered to take my picture with a polaroid and put it up on the wall as their first CDT hiker of the season. That just made my day back in 2022. I still remember what that photo looked like, me with my silly animal sweater on.
When I came back this summer, therefore, I was really hopeful it would be Brenda again. I even intentionally wore the same sweater on a hot summer’s day just in case it would help her recognize me (well that’s embarrassing to say out loud). It wasn’t Brenda. And they didn’t have polaroids this time. I was disappointed, and thought that the only way to remedy this dismal situation was that someone had to take my picture and put it up on the wall. That way, if Brenda still worked here, she would come into work the next day and see what she missed. Ok I’m being dramatic. But I did want my picture taken. And I did want Brenda to see it. It felt like closure for such a dismal CDT experience the previous year. So I went and bought film from Walmart and brought it back and they took my picture and put it on the wall and there. Take that Ski Haus. You can’t stop me. Talk about desperate.
I’d told Towhee about my hopefully rendezvous with Brenda at the Ski Haus while walking the TEN MILES of asphalt road along Grizzly Creek the evening before (what else were we going to talk about for ten miles?). So I’m at the Ski Haus sitting in a camping chair by the little display they have just inside the door eating a quart of ice cream beneath my proudly posted polaroid picture still hot from the press when Towhee waltzes inside, sees me, and practically yells “IS SHE HERE?”. God damnit Towhee.