Miles today: 18.8
Total miles: 780.1
I ate some leftover pizza for breakfast this morning. What a crazy experience being able to order a pizza to a shelter. It’s nice and delicious on one hand but on the other it’s kind of sad how hard it can be to escape civilization sometimes.
Oh well. My knees were really bothering me toward the end of the day yesterday and also hurt a bit today. I wore my knee brace for the first time in a couple weeks and that helped, along with ibuprofen. The day was as it has been lately. Pretty lazy with long breaks but still making decent time. It was nice having extra company too. I’m so grateful for having other people around now that I’ve gotten a taste of what it’s like hiking completely alone. I enjoyed Blondie, timeless and buzz’s company throughout the day. Saw some deer in the woods today which was nice.
At one point in the day, Blondie and i switched packs for a couple miles. No wonder he walks so fast!! His pack weighed next to nothing. It was lighter than my backpack I wore in college. Lighter than my purse. It was insane, I felt like I was carrying pillows and could run up hills. Those were the most liberating couple of miles of my hike. Then we switched back. And I was very sad and have vowed to find a way to make my pack as light as his (preferably without spending all the money I have). Seriously though, I feel like my hike would be entirely different both physically and mentally if my pack were light. I shall update if I find a way to make this happen.
Our destination for the day was a spiritual center that allows hikers to camp at its baseball field. We got there and it was on a beautiful quiet campus where I think friars live? It is so kind to provide this space. There was a little pavilion with ELECTRICITY! Lights, how strange. And plugs to charge our phones! I got there and enjoyed sitting in the warm sun while cooking my dinner at a picnic table and calling some friends. Blondie, buzz, Timeless, and Delta also stayed there. Timeless made us a nice fire and we roasted marshmallows and stayed up later than usual talking. The moon was nearly full and was so bright over the open field. We didn’t even need headlamps to see.