Day 74 – 7/5/13 – 14 mi (1270.5)
Roadwalking always sucks, but a series of events made this one a little less painful. We had a few miles on a dirt road before reaching paved highway 14. Silly Chili had a flight to catch in Denver, so he and Rockin’ tried hitching to Steamboat Springs as soon as we hit the paved road. Having little luck, Stryder made a sign for them to help cars know where they were going.
About 2 miles into the paved road, a car going the opposite direction pulled over…with Ninja and Sweetfish. They’d gotten into town last night, crashed in Wired’s hotel room, and somehow gotten a ride back to slackpack the roadwalk with a rancher Wired had met a couple days ago who lived along the road. The rancher offered to take Silly Chili and Rockin into Steamboat and also drop off the rest of our packs in town. Slackpacking for us too!!
A couple miles further down the road, another car going the opposite direction pulled over. It was Stryder’s cousin, Brynna, who lives in Steamboat Springs, and she brought us doughnuts. We each inhaled two on the spot and made some plans for later in the day.
A couple more miles down the road we reached the ranch of the man who’d helped with all the rides and slackpacking to find a cooler of magic! We stopped for a break and enjoyed a cold drink.
The final stretch seemed to go on forever, but we finally reached the optimal hitching spot near the pass and pretty easily thumbed a ride into town. Ninja and Sweetfish got into town shortly thereafter and we all met up with Brynna for lunch. My good friend from Portland, yet another 2011 PCTer, Goodness, was in the state visiting family and came out to visit too.
Brynna is leaving tomorrow to move to India for 2 years but made time for us anyway. We are all staying at her friend Trent’s house. After the usual flurry of showers and laundry, most of us went out to a free bluegrass concert downtown. While there, we also met up with 2 of the 3 guys who gave us a hitch out of Fraser last week. What a stream of wonderful people all day!