Day 74: Will I Ever Be Clean Again??

Date: June 22, 2017
Miles: 1247.2 – 1261 

 I washed my shorts in the river yesterday and hung them in a tree to dry overnight. Because of the intense humidity, this morning they were every bit as wet as they were last night. I reluctantly changed into my incredibly smelly shirt, my soggy shorts and socks-that-will-never-be-clean-again and packed up my things, vowing to set fire to my clothes and buy new ones as soon as possible. The morning humidity and the immediate 8.5 mile climb to a point called Lookout Rock added another layer of sweat. (Side note: Matthew renamed Lookout Rock to Look out! Rock! because sometimes things like that are our only trail boredom relief options.  You probably had to be there…)  

We met a trail maintenance crew along the way and let them know of all the blowdowns on trail and chatted with them for a bit. Those guys drag heavy tools up the trail and work hard in the heat, so we make sure to thank them when we see them. For the rest of the short day, we walked past faroff views of trees for miles, and wildflowers and carpets of greenery at our feet. 

We reached the first highway that led into the town of Quincy, and though we had heard it was a tough hitch, it only took us a few minutes to get a ride into town. We ate food and resupplied, then got two quick hitches back out of town and up to Haskins Valley Campground on Bucks Lake, which had one of the cleanest campground bathrooms I’ve come across. People in Quincy were really friendly…we had no problem getting rides and even had multiple cars pull over at the same time. I have yet to wait more than twenty minutes for a ride and I didn’t break that streak here!  

We had our nightly hot chocolate in camp and talked a bit about the future, then we took refuge in our tents from the gathering mosquitos and went to bed.