September 1st
Segment 21
128.6 miles to go!!
Up again at 4:30 to face the climbs early and hopefully make it to highway 149 by 12:30 and catch the hiker shuttle to Lake City. We crossed three more saddles and then the Snow Mesa, a high plateau.
The moon was beautiful again and we followed it all morning. We saw a herd of deer in the distance as the sun was starting it’s way across the mountain tops.
Our highest elevation was 12,760 feet.
We shortened all of our breaks to hurry along pushing for our shuttle ride.
We saw the highway at about 12:10 but it was far below us. Pushed as fast as we could but of course the ground was steep and rocky and we had to step carefully.
I kept hoping the shuttle would be a few minutes late. I kept watching the vehicles go by looking for buses or shuttles. We arrived at the highway around 12:40. I didn’t see a shuttle stop sign or bus stop. I saw hikers on the other side of the highway at a trailhead parking lot. We crossed the road, they were also waiting for a ride. A sliver Toyota truck pulled up full of hikers. We met Laurel and asked if she was the hiker shuttle today. She said yes, today was her volunteer day for the Hiker Center. Oh, so not a real shuttle but a volunteer service, how funny. Laurel was sweet and a professed trail angle for the Lake City Hiker Center in the summer and in Arizona in the winter. We asked if we could be dropped off at the RV park where we had a reservation but she insisted we go to the Hiker Center. The Hiker Center was started by Pastor Jason as a community outreach service. It’s really accommodating. They offered us free tea and espresso, many charging stations, donated toiletries, lots of seating and hiker boxes. Many retired patrons of the community come and hang out and welcome and visit with the hikers and love to hear the stories of the trail. I can see why it was a must-stop place. We were able to leave our packs and go to the grocery store and post office. Jodie got new Hokas in the mail, it was like Christmas! Her shoes had no tread and they were new when we started! She has special insoles so I tried out the new ones and felt great in my shoes! Win, win!
We saw nearly everyone from our camp site last night and caught up with Mojo and Jilly Bean whom we both adore, along with Frog Brain. It was so fun catching up with everyone and so easy to lose track of time.
We checked into the RV park in the late afternoon. We had to shower and start our laundry soon because the office was closing where the laundry was. I felt like I had to choose between showering and laundry and getting hot food and charging my electronics. I had a panic and stuffed all my dirty stuff in a bag along with my electronics I needed to charge and jumped in the shower first. I handed the bag to Jodie and she started our laundry for us. I completely forgot about my electronics bag until later…oops. It got washed! I set my electronics out to dry and hope for the best and let it go, what are you going to do? What’s done is done. So clean and laundered we went and caught up to Mojo and Jilly Bean and went out to eat! The food and the company were lovely! Later they introduced us to Ruthless over at the hostel. She’s an amazing inspiration. She’s in her late 70’s, in amazing shape, an experienced long trail hiker world wide and blogger with The Trek. We traded info and stories and thoroughly enjoyed meeting her!
I shamelessly raided the hiker box at the hostel and found some coveted coffee packets, yay! The tiny grocery store didn’t have any.
We headed back to camp to sleep in our tents and secured our food because a bear has been raiding the camp lately.
Jodie’s blog bikehikerepeat.com