Day 14 – 3/27/16
0 miles
226.4 / 236.4 miles total
With the new plan to wait in town until Bubs gets new shoes delivered on Tuesday, we needed to do a bunch of rearranging, primarily getting Rockin back to her car and getting our food in her car into plastic buckets cached by the trail. And since we were going there anyway, we packed up the packrafts to stash with the food.
It was quite simple:
Step 1: get plastic buckets from a restaurant in town.
Step 2: get Rockin to charm men from the touring motorcycle group staying at our hotel into giving her and me a ride part of the way to her parked car
Step 3: stick out thumbs and get picked up by the first truck that passes by, then taken an hour out of the driver’s way on a dirt road
Step 4: have a panic attack upon discovering that Rockin was not parked where I thought she was (turns out there are 2 Lower Muley Twist trailheads)
Step 5: retrieve packrafts we’d stashed near where we’d gotten the last hitch (we had full packs and were prepared to walk the last 30 miles and camp overnight if necessary) and drive back to the correct trailhead
Step 6: wait for Park Ranger to go away, then cache food, water and packrafts
By early afternoon, we were back in Hanksville where we said goodbye to Rockin. It was great to share a week of hiking together, and it’s a shame the last few days couldn’t proceed as planned. Thanks for joining us Rockin!!
Bubs and I moved over to the campground in town (the motel was just too expensive to stay another 2 nights), then spent the rest of the day loitering at the gas station/burger joint (best wifi in town) followed by the campground’s restaurant sipping a beer as slowly as humanly possible to remain indoors.
Haha! Great tactic with Rockin charming the motorcycle dudes. Classic!
Oh you know I loved every moment of that. They were super nice and went more than out of their way to give us a ride. Smooth.
You are welcome. You added to our vacation! ! Glad we were a part of your journey.
Very resourceful to say the least. You gotta want it and I can definitely tell you both want it! Admiration……
What goings on! Hope the new shoes fit the bill for Bubbles!
Sometimes the detours make for the grandest adventures. Glad you are adapting plans. I doubt Hanksville has a lot of supplied. I’ve been reading about hydropel sport ointment. Essentially petroleum jelly. It’s supposed to help ease blisters and prevent water logged feet.
Gosh! You seem to be having a great time, if you call cold weather, lots of water crossings and climbing more then hiking fun! Be safe!