Town today! We did something we never do and didn’t set an alarm this morning. Wolf Bird told me he’d wake me up if I was still sleeping by 6:30AM and of course I was. It was a nice treat to sleep a bit later than usual. Wolf Bird told me the other two were already gone so I felt like I needed to get a move on. But once I packed up and was out of the tent I saw they were still there! Evil conniving Wolf Bird! Actually I think he didn’t see their tent but still it was a good tactic to get me moving.
We only had about 11 miles to walk before town and they flew by. It was a beautiful morning with great views and just really enjoyable. We walked from around 7 to 11 and arrived at the road ready to hitch. There was not very much traffic on the road so we mostly sat around in the hot sun. Yote and 2.Toe soon arrived and we eventually decided to walk a ways down the road to a different pullout that was on less of a blind curve. Almost immediately a car stopped for us!
A super cool old school jeep stopped for the four of us as well as a NOBO hiker Ikie. The jeep was pretty small but the retired couple told us they’d be happy to take us all if we could fit. Wolf Bird sat crammed in the trunk with all the packs and the four of us squeezed in the backseat. The couple was very nice and told us they travel the country all year in their bus and tow their jeep along. They are in this area for about six weeks.
After a long winding drive down the mountain we arrived in Etna and had the couple drop us off at Dottys, a local burger joint. We all pigged out and soon figured out where we’d stay in town. Yote and 2.Toe opted for the hiker hostel as they were expecting a package there. We decided to stay at the city park as it was much cheaper yet still had wifi and showers etc. We had to go to the grocery store to buy tokens for the shower. As we were walking from the grocery store to the park to set up camp, a woman in a driveway who was unloading stuff from her car shouted to us, “hey, want a beer?!” We of course couldn’t turn down that offer so we followed her to a nice shaded porch where she introduced us to her sister.
Wolf Bird and I hung out for quite a while chatting with Chris and I can’t remember the other sister’s name. They were hilarious and so generous. One had just moved to town only six months ago from Buffalo and was already trying to set up a little spot in her barn to host hikers! We enjoyed a couple Coronas and even some cotton candy grapes (what even are those!) and then said our goodbyes. They even invited us to join them for dinner later if we wanted. The kindness of strangers along this trail is truly amazing.
We then went and set up our tent in the park and then did town chores. We did our laundry and resupplied and unfortunately that took too long so we didn’t join the sisters for dinner. We did meet up with Yote and 2.Toe for a late dinner at a local restaurant and went to bed full and happy and well past our bed time.