Day 53

Trail miles: 0

Total: 702.2

I slept in the longest I have slept in in my tent so far on trail. Which probably was a mistake, because I ended up having to wait almost 2 hours for my breakfast. It was nice for the long rest though. Breakfast was alright, but nothing I will probably remember or tell people about after the trail. It wasn’t about the waiting two hours that made me anxious, it was the fact that I had a lot to do and I felt like I was wasting time. Raechel made a bet last night while playing disk golf with some of the workers that she could finish 3 pancakes at breakfast. But they were larger than the size of the plate, so she only got through one and a half. Which was still really impressive. We took a trip to the General Store where I used the Wi-Fi to download the instructions to finding a hole in a sleeping pad. I started the process in the back area and filled a bucket I found with water from a broken shower and some leftover shampoo. I worked on it for about 20 minutes with no luck before Krista and Brad insisted on help. I am so grateful for that, because I was doing a terrible job. Brad was dumping soapy water on the bottom when Krista heard the leak. I ran over to grab a sharpie to circle the hole! I was so relieved to find it. But that was half the battle. When I got back to Grumpy Bear, we patched the hold using Agua Seal and Tenacious Tape. It went alright as far as I know, but there wasn’t enough sunlight left in the day for it to dry fully, so I will probably be sleeping on my 1/4in pad tonight. Plus I have to be up for the Tottenham game at 8am, so might not be a great sleep. I picked up my packages that I sent to myself and my mom packed for me at Grumpy Bear. I got a dry bag for my camera for the river crossings, my ice axe, and my microspikes. My mom also snuck in some homemade snickerdoodle and almond cookies to share with hikers! I went around handing them out and everyone was very grateful. For resupply, I went to the Triple Crown Outfitters next door to Grumpy Bear. They are a gear shop run by Yogi, run out of a trailer car. They had everything I needed like Injinji sock liners and individual snacks. Yogi helped me pick out shoe inserts for about 20 minutes, because my arches have been sore after a long day on trail. She even gave me good advice on how to cut them to fit into my shoe and how to work my way into wearing them all the time on trail. She has been telling everyone you don’t need an ice axe for this section, because there isn’t enough snow. I will for sure take mine, but it gives me a little piece of mind! Do I stayed with people until 10pm at the bar using the Wi-Fi downloading YouTube videos, because I bought the 8 hour Wi-Fi and wanted to make the most of it. I got a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for $8, which I felt bad about before I realized everyone else’s cocktails were the same price. So I think I got the better deal. They had a light path on the way back to the campsite which was lovely. I didn’t even need my headlamp to get back.