Day 46: Wait, There Was Barbecue??

Date: May 25, 2017
Miles: 607.3 – 630.8 

“Always take your breaks by a road.” ~ trail angel

I woke up safe and sound today, having had no encounters with a man, deer or bear, but my dreams of being home were so vivid that I had absolutely no idea where I was when I first opened my eyes. Nothing looked familiar. It took my brain about five minutes to separate dream from reality and then it was time to get up and get walking. 

It was a pleasantly cool morning for the walk to a water cache at Kelso Road, where we found a cooler with beer, strawberry dacquiris and water.  Morning magic!

After a break at the cache, we hiked until it got too hot to keep moving and found some boulders to nap behind for a few hours. When we woke up and got moving again, we realized that we had slept about a quarter mile from a trail angel’s surprise barbecue (with ice cream sandwiches!) and missed the whole thing. There were a few cans of root beer left as consolation. 

We took another break for the pop (you can’t have too many breaks, really) and then headed up into the hills. It soon became so windy that we had a hard time walking straight. We stopped at Bird Springs Pass and tried to find the least windy spots to camp. I managed to position my quilt in such a way that the wind funneled right into the hole in the foot box and out past my head, turning my sleep system into a wind tunnel. I was too tired to change positions though, so that’s how it stayed as I fell asleep.