Finally Resting After 48 Hours of Hiking

This morning I slept in fairly late at the room. It felt so good to be able to rest my body after the last few days and what we’ve been doing. Eventually, I wanted to getting up to go over to the continental breakfast with everybody. Then I headed back to the room after that.

I had a colder degree quilt sent to the post office in town, so after getting breakfast I decided to head over to the post office. That was a couple miles away, but luckily there’s a bus in town that you just have to call and it will come and pick you up. The guy who drives the bus was super nice. He came and got us really quickly. Then dropped us off at the post office and I grabbed my quilt. I also brought my other quilt to the post office so that I could mail that home. Then we headed back to the hotel after that.

I traded out my Jacks R Better 20 degree quilt for a zero degree quilt. That way I’m comfortable for Colorado without adding any more clothing to set up.

I use the Jacks R Better Big Meadow UL quilt. Previously I had the 20 degree and now I have the zero degree.

The bus actually wound up stopping off by the Walmart, so I decided to get out there so that I could grab some things. In the end, I just got some snacks and other odds and ends and didn’t actually do my whole resupply. I got a bunch of drinks for the next day or so. I also got some Epsom salts and a heat pad. That way I can just rest and take care of my body while we’re in town. 

Over the course of the day we wound up deciding to take another zero tomorrow too. That’s because of a few reasons. Mostly because the guys sent resupply boxes to the post office in the next town. And if we hike out tomorrow then we’ll get to town on a Sunday or a Monday holiday. So we either have to zero in this town or zero in the next town. But it makes more sense to rest here after what we just did.

At one point I took a bath and ate fried rice and drank a chocolate milk while doing so.

After shopping I came back to the room to relax once more. I laid in bed and got some writing done while I drank one of many drinks that I got. I got a bunch of different drinks like Gatorade, Powerade, body armor, and Pedialyte. One just wasn’t enough.

Later on in the day, we decided to go to the gas station next door and grab some actual alcoholic drinks. Everybody wanted to sit in the hot tub for a while and sip on something. When we got back to the hotel though the hot tub was closed! They had just added chlorine. So we had to wait a while before we go in.

Sidequest posing with the bottle of vodka that we got from the store. Looking as homeless as possible.

Around this time our friend Dirty came to the room. We hadn’t seen him since Lander so it was nice to see him again. He also broke the news to us that he’s going to be getting off town and going home. That’s a bummer and I’ll definitely miss seeing him around on trail. But I was happy that we got to see him today before he flies home. He hung out with us at the room for a long time and then went to go get some dinner.

Later on in the evening all of us decided to get into the hot tub. It was super nice all hanging out together and enjoying our last night with Dirty. We stayed in that hot tub for probably a couple of hours and by the end of it, I just could not take the heat anymore. When we left I was starving so I looked on my phone and realized there was a 24 hour diner right down the street. Everybody was super hungry so we headed over there.

Syrup, Sidequest, 9 Lives, and I in the hot tub. Dirty took the photo, so we couldn’t get one all together.

The rest of the gang wound up getting McDonald’s instead because the fryers were down at Penny’s diner, but Syrup and I stayed and got late night food at Penny’s. I got a patty melt, which was one of the best patty melts I’ve ever had before. And I’m pretty much a patty melt connoisseur. Then we headed back to the hotel to hang out with everyone.

Penny’s Diner was a super cool old style diner.

The incredible patty melt that I got at the diner.

Everybody laid in bed and we decided to watch a movie. One of the only movies on TV was Everest, which was actually incredible. Considering what we’re doing it was just fun to watch a movie based on a true story about the outdoors. Then once that ended around 3am in the morning, everybody called it a night. I don’t know how I was still up, but I guess that the tiredness just hasn’t caught up to me yet.