Omelets, Fire Towers, and Another Mountain

The alarm came early, but I was ready to get some miles in. I packed up my stuff in the dark, hoping that I hadn’t forgotten anything. We all walked down the rocks stairs again for the fourth and fortunately final time. As we were walking down the sidewalk, I squinted as I looked at who was walking towards us. It looked like Duck and the Mississippi Boys but there was no way. Turns out it was and the chance of them hiking 20 with us today just got a little higher.

We all piled back into the same booth, only with a few additions and several less from the group from yesterday. Today I wasn’t sure what I wanted to order. I didn’t think the pancake sundae was the move before hiking, but I wasn’t sure what was. Duck said he was getting some Western something or other omelette. It looked really good. I ordered last so I asked for that omelette with home fries and an English muffin. I thought Duck ordered the biscuit so, since I didn’t want to be a complete copy cat, I ordered the English muffin. Well he gave me a hard time cause I guess that was his exact order and I clearly just wasn’t paying attention.

The food was delicious and put me in the mood for this hike, regardless of how awful the elevation was going to be. We walked down the street and across the river. The trail followed the river for a little while before it started winding up the mountain. While it wasn’t particularly easy, the climb wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.

There was a cool fire tower with an awesome view a little ways in. We dropped our packs at the base of the side trail and went up to check out the view. There was a few day hikers out that were up there too.

A little over halfway in we stopped at the shelter for lunch. Light Saber went down to get water and I started eating. It got chilly quick with the wind chill so I threw my puffy on and moved from the picnic table to the ground to get some warmth from the sun. I finished eating my wrap and almost all my snacks and he still hadn’t come up from the water. I was getting slightly concerned and then a few minutes later he finally popped back up. He said he had gotten a bloody nose which made sense.

While we were eating lunch, everyone rolled in and paused for a bit and then rolled out. That’s how my lunch breaks usually go; people will come and go and I’ll still be sitting there. Right before we took off, Duck rolled up and it was sounding like him and the Mississippi Boys may come all the way.

I was feeling refueled and ready to go. I put in some music and started walking. At some point I got in front of Light Saber when he paused. Country music flowed through my ears and I just kept trekking along. With about 1.5 miles to go, I paused for a couple minutes to talk to Straps. As soon as I knew we didn’t have far to go, I was ready to get there.

I pushed through that last bit of elevation. Finally up ahead I saw bear cables. I knew I had made it. It was a tough day, but truthfully I thought it was going to be worse. 22 was already up there so I found a spot and dropped my pack. Not too long after, Duck and Light Saber came over the hill. Duck, first, wondering how fast I just climbed that last hill because he had no idea how he didn’t catch me. Light Saber, next, giving me a hard time about me trying to ditch him. We all set up our tents before heading to the shelter to make dinner. Duck had to steal my other pole to set up his tent since he had snapped his going into Hot Springs.

We had a fun time hanging out at the shelter. I was too lazy to put on long pants before dinner so I was so cold. It was so fun to see who all actually joined in on my crazy idea. Even Chappy and the Mississippi Boys, Hangman and Truffles, made it in.

The next couple days we are planning to do about 16/17 miles each day to get to Erwin on Sunday. I’m excited but also kind of nervous cause I haven’t really tried to push that high of mileage that many days in a row, but I’m also looking forward to the challenge. Tomorrow is looking quite as steep as today. We have coined the term “basically flat” when referring to a section that starts at about the same elevation it ends with and has some ups and downs in there. Right now Light Saber hates that term because there’s nothing flat about it, which is why the word basically is so crucial in the phrase.

It got cold enough that I was ready to crawl in my tent and hide. I was ready for some sleep before tomorrow’s high adventures.