While everyone else was getting bitten by bugs this morning, I enjoyed my breakfast from the sanctuary of my tent. It was very smile-inducing. Mr. Fantastic left before me today, ushered to the trail by little pinching bug bites. My feet hit the dirt about 40 minutes later, and I enjoyed the near forgotten sensation of hiking after a good nights sleep.
I put on some music and attempted to make good time, vaulting over dips in the trail with my trekking poles and carving out tight corners down the steep descent. It was a fun morning, and after a few decent views I caught up with Mr. Fantastic.
Once we made it to a campsite with water we stopped to refill, and met up with Eva and Short Term. We had met Eva at trail days briefly, so that was a fun reunion. We had a brief lunch there before continuing on toward our resupply.
Even with all downhills, it was oppressively hot out. A lot of the trail had no cover from the sun, looking and feeling a bit like traversing a scorched desert. We kept moving down a nonstop, leg-breaking descent until we stumbled onto the shelter. Even though it was only another 2 miles to the road we decided to take a break and rest our feet.
Eva and Short Term caught up with us, along with Brownie who was at the same shelter last night. We all enjoyed a moments respite, and then moved on up the trail.
We crossed a river before hitting the highway, walking across the longest foot bridge on the trail, and asked a lady at the parking lot which was the best direction for food. She gave us a little info, and then offered a ride into town.
Glasgow was a pretty sad place for a ravenous hiker, having no place to get some hot food. They did however have a Dollar General, and we stocked up accordingly. I bought too much food for the coming stint of hiking, and my back was feeling it immediately, but too much is better than not enough.
The hitch back didn't go nearly as easily, but it was story-worthy. As cars zoomed past us, ignoring our plight, we were getting a little delirious in the heat. At one point a van drove by, and gave us a dejected look that said to me, "I would if I could, but don't have the space". After a couple of minutes he came back though, offering to squeeze us into the back of his van with his cleaning supplies. We were ecstatic!
It was a fun ride, bouncing this way and that around the insanely curving highway, and we all chatted about trail life. When the driver found out that we were from Jersey and DC he was shocked, saying "No way! I thought all you guys from Jersey and DC could do was work on laptops and talk on phones!". This of course cracked us up, and as he dropped us off back at the bridge he wandered off to look at some girls in bikinis swimming in the river. It was quite the entertaining ride.
A quick 2 mile hike brought us to the next shelter, where we bumped into Eva and Short Term again. We enjoyed quite the riotous conversation before they left to do a 20 mile night hike. Quite impressive.
Laziness is stopping me from pitching my tent tonight, which I'm sure to regret, but getting in close to sunset has that effect on me. Who wants to work in the dark after all.
Tomorrow is going to start with a pretty strenuous climb, which is my least favorite way to start the day. It's also supposed to rain, but anything to cool this heat off will make me happy. For now I'll just focus on making it to Buena Vista and getting the hot meal I was denied in Glasgow. Everything else is trivial.
