August 4th
We decided we liked the 4 am start so well are making it routine.
Today was Jodie’s birthday. It was 5:10 am, she was standing under a nearly full moon, we had our headlamps on and we were hiking!!!
The predawn is such a magical time of morning. It’s dark, but the sky is beautiful deep blue. Things pop in your beam of light. Reflecting sparkles of water and silver colored leaves. It’s quite. Then the sky starts to lighten with dawn, birds start singing and we watch the sun come up. We found an old road in a meadow and ate our hot breakfast as the day started to warm.
We made it a trailhead around 10 and immediately got a hitch into town from the first car. It’s was quite surprising. She skidded to a stop and yelled out the window; “hey I can take you to town, let me make some room!” So we squished into the back seat. One of our packs between us and one wedged in the back. She loves hiking and camping and is nurse at an outdoor remote nature school. We bounced down the dirt road on our way to town and she skidded to a stop again for another hiker. She again said she could make room and we started passing all the stuff from the front seat to the back of her little Subaru. He squeezed into the front with his backpack and we all happiy chatted all the way to the Bailey post office. Hikers love hikers!
We got out resupply from the post office and headed the Smiling Pig where we were given a table by an outlet with all the water and time we wanted along with our giant salads with BBQ meat! Soo yummy!
A gentleman in town asked if we needed a ride back to the trailhead and happily talked and reminisced about his hiking and backpacking experiences when he was younger all the way back to the trail. Trail magic!
We did a lot of climbing this afternoon. We are camped above 9,100 feet. We are by a creek that is a known good water source and it’s like a camper town. There are about a dozen people here tonight! The creek is flowing strong and it’s nice to listen to and fall asleep to.
Jodie’s blog bikehikerepeat.com
More photos on FB
Happiest birthday, Jodie! 🎉
I love all the trail magic you are experiencing and the smiles warm my heart. 🥰