August 22nd
Segment 13
Another beautiful sunrise with lots of pink and orange turning to golden yellow.
The trail was gentle today except for the road walking as we neared Mt Princeton Hot Springs. It was long and hot on the road and tough on the feet and knees. Not much shoulder with trucks speeding by with equipment on trailers.
We were rewarded with the best meal experience on trail yet! Except for Jodie’s birthday lunch in Baily food has been a real disappointment which is hard when you’re eating a diet of dehydrated meat and veggies and assorted bars and trail mix. The restaurant welcomed us inside and we sat at a table with a white table cloth, fresh flowers and an outlet to charge our phones.
Just sitting in a chair at the table felt like a luxury! The waiter was a joy and completely understood the hiking community and brought a pitcher of water for the table right away. We looked at he menu and we’ve boh been craving a decent hamburger…for weeks! When he returned to take our order and said he had gluten free buns we both got a little tearful with joy. The food arrived and after oohing and ahhing and getting a photo there was complete silence.
It was heavenly! Jodie had her eyes closed thoroughly enjoying the moment and eating slowly. I was having a hard time containing myself and not devouring it like an animal! It was one the best meal experiences of my life!!! I guess that’s what being in the woods so long will do to you. I made the mistake of thinking I might as well top it off with dessert and may have gone too far.
Walking the next 3 miles was going to be rough! Fortunately Denise was still vacationing in the area and we planned to camp with her tonight. She caught up to us as we were back on our long road walk and lightened our loads by taking some of our gear to camp and met us there.
We are camping at Chalk Creek and all of us soaked our sore feet in the ice cold water after setting up our tents and Denise’s hammock. What perfect day! Again a night of no rain flys, yay! And the creek lulling us to sleep.
