Hitching Back to Town For Denny’s

This morning we packed up at the room and got ready to hike out of town. I’m looking forward to finally leaving Grants after spending a couple days here to recover from the flash flood. But I’m so glad that we did stay.

We left around checkout time and began road walking out of town. We will be on the road for the entire day today as well. From our motel room we had about 5 or 6 miles to walk until we would pass a gas station and rest stop. That would be the last resupply location before the next town of town.

Breakfast this morning before leaving Grants.

We were only about a mile or two down the road when a shuttle bus pulled up beside us and offered us a ride to the subway. James and Syrup couldn’t resist taking the ride, and I didn’t blame them. There’s no point of doing road walks if you don’t have to. Especially if you aren’t worried about maintaining a continuous footpath. Luckily though right at the last minute, Sparkle had the smart idea of us giving the guys our backpacks. That way we could basically just skip down the road those next few miles to get to the gas station.

Leaving Grants this morning.

And that’s exactly what we did! All we had was water bottles and our fanny packs, and we walked the rest of the way to Subway. That felt so good because my body was pretty sore today. My backpack was feeling so heavy with lots of water and food to get a Pie Town. Especially because there’s no resupply in Pie Town. There’s absolutely no place to buy anything, not even snacks. So I’m sending a box there to pick up at the post office. But I know that the box doesn’t have nearly enough stuff in it. So I decided to carry extra food from Grants to make sure that I would have enough when I got there.

Couldn’t resist getting a churro from subway.

We made great time getting to the gas station. When I got there I got a 6 inch sub, a churro, and a Red Bull. Then we all sat there and ate and hung out for a little bit before continuing on. Leaving there the road walk continued for the rest of the day. We walked for another two or three hours before stopping off to take a break. It was pretty hot out so I used my Gossamer Gear sun umbrella for the entire day mostly. Luckily, there really wasn’t any wind today so I could use the umbrella without any issue.

The gang hanging in the gas station.

We took another break on the side of the road when we found a good spot. Then we continued on. That was the routine that we kept up with for the rest of the day. During the middle of the day, we came to the realization that we clearly should’ve slack packed this section of road. Nana Man actually drove by us with a couple other hikers that he was bringing to the next town. Lot of the hikers on the CDT skip the road walks. That’s just something I’ve noticed over the last few months. People who were behind you often wind up getting ahead of you when you go through sections with road walks.

James and Syrup walking down the road up ahead of us.

When Nana drove by us, that’s when we really realized that we probably should’ve slacked packed. Our packs were so heavy and we were suffering for no reason. Around this time we had thought maybe once we made the mileage that we wanted to, we could just try to hitch back to Grants for the night. That way we can get some dinner and hang out and be comfortable. The hike is getting really close to the end now. And I want to enjoy myself and be comfortable as much as possible. Especially with how hard I’ve pushed myself on this thru hike.

James, Sparkle, and I heading down the road.

After a while, we came to the next water source. It was actually a cache at a visitor center, which was great. It’s so awesome that people are caching water out here for hikers. Otherwise, it would’ve been an insanely long water carry. When we got there, we took a break and we made a plan. The plan was that we would fill up with enough water that we could camp for the night if we needed to. But, we would walk for another hour before trying to start hitchhiking back to Grants. That way we had a little bit of time to hitch before the sun set. And if we didn’t get a ride, we would have enough water to keep hiking and camp for the night. That seemed like a perfect plan to me.

Crossing over an over pass along our road walk.

So we headed out from that visitor center building and walked for another hour. Then we began trying to get a hitch back to grants. But a bunch of cars drove by us and no one stopped. After about 20 or so minutes, it was seeming like we were going to be camping out for the night. Sparkle made a comment to be about how we weren’t going to get a ride. And I vividly remember telling her that if we want to get a ride to town, there’s no way that we don’t get a ride to town. The trail provides. And the more you believe in your heart, the more it comes true.

The sun beginning to set as we walked along the road.

Within five minutes of conversation, a truck pulled over and said that they could take us all the way to Grants. He didn’t even know where Grant was, but we explained where it was and he said he would take us. Originally  he said he was just going bring us back to that subway gas station. Then we could hitch a ride from there back to town. But while we were in the car, he had a change of heart.

Sparkle and I together on the road. This picture warms my heart.

That stranger brought us all the way back to Grants and dropped us off at the Denny’s. Then we had a fantastic dinner and everyone was so excited and happy about the way things worked out. You just need to have faith when you’re out here on trail. If you think that things aren’t going to work out then they aren’t gonna work out. If you think that you’re not going to get the hitch, then you definitely aren’t. But if you think that everything is going to work out, and you aren’t worried about it, then everything will work out. I promise you. That is the mantra that I live by in all aspects of my life, whether or not I’m on trail.

In the back of the pickup truck, heading back to Grants!

After we got dinner at Denny’s we headed down the street to room for the night. We wound up checking into a different motel room than yesterday, which was a little bit nicer and a little bit cheaper. Plus splitting the room with four people instead of two is always a lot cheaper. All we wanted to do was relax, shower, and sleep in a bed for the night, so we really didn’t need some huge room.

Dennys for dinner!

Crepes in bed back at our motel room.

I brought back some leftover strawberry and cream crêpes to the room from Denny’s. So after I took a shower, I got comfortable in bed and ate some crêpes. Then I did a little bit of writing before calling in the night.