Ever imagined walking from Spiffy’s restaurant south of Chehalis to The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant in Ethel on Hwy 12 (about 14 miles) on a sunny 80° day? Me neither. But, that was what I was facing today. I knew there was a fair amount of road walking on the CDT, and I should have been prepared for it, but I didn’t realize it was today until a couple days ago. To be truthful, I noticed on the FarOut app that there were no trail crossings, no water, no marks of any kind for 13 miles, but it didn’t occur to me that indicated the route was on a highway. At the Burro Mountain RV site Lee mentioned something about a road walk coming up, so I sat up and took notice. Yep. 13 miles on the highway to Silver City.
How best to manage this? Get up early and get it done before the day heats up. Luckily, Dallas was of the same mind. I set my alarm for 4:45 am and was packed up and on the road by 5:15am.
There was about 1.5 miles of gravel road to traverse before I hit the blacktop. I had six miles done before the first rays of sun hit me. Did I mention it was cold? Like 35° cold. That really helped ease the pain of a road walk.
When hiking trail one needs to keep an eye on where one steps. Roots, stones,etc require attention. When walking blacktop that is not necessary. I utilized miles 6 to 11 to write the previous two day’s blog entries. As long as I kept the white line on my right as I walked head down into the sparse traffic I was good.
I FaceTimed Robby, Junie and Izzy for a mile or so, listened to the the book “Remember” about memory and how it functions and enjoyed some Led Zepplin. By 10:15 in the morning I had covered the 14 miles and was at the Triple Crown Hostel.
Brenden, the owner and operator gave us the tour. Nice place. Hot tub, full kitchen, two baths with showers, bunk room and private rooms. I am tenting at $12.50 a night. Dallas has the private suite at $60 a night.
In the main room I met Bird from Detroit, McGiver from Germany, Slow Poke from all over (army brat) and Green Mountain Mama from Vermont. Magic Mike, Dallas and I walked to a bar downtown for lunch. Afterward I did a little shopping downtown before returning to the hostel where I grabbed one of the loaner bikes and rode to the nearest full size grocery store for food for tonight and tomorrow. Eggs, broccoli, spinach, onion and ham for egg frittatas.
A little later King-go and I rode back to the grocery and then thru the historic downtown area, stopping at an ice cream shop for a cone. Once I saw the prices I thought it was too much and started to walk out. King-go, all 25 years old, tells me it is about the atmosphere, not the price. He was right. We got cones, sat in a booth and had a great talk. Worth the overpriced cone.
King-go works with troubled youth in Portland, trying to keep them from becoming homeless. We discussed foster care and what it will take to stop the cycle of homelessness. Smart, caring and fun kid.
I spent the rest of the afternoon writing, talking with the hostile kids, cooking dinner and eating with Dallas in her “suite”, then enjoying pizza with the “kids”. All in all, another amazing day.
Dallas getting ready to hike the road to Silver City. She took off like a shot and was soon half a mile ahead.
It is a lot darker than this image shows. That is Dallas up ahead in the pool of light from her headlamp. My shadow is from the moon behind me. It was a full moon.
Those four lights in the sky are, from left to right, Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn. What a gorgeous show for us early risers.
The sun finds me at about mile six of the road walk.
The road goes on and on. Check out the mileage on the sign.
The divide.
The courtyard at the hostel as seen from my tent position. No shade for the tent.
The kitchen, dining, family room portion of the hostel. Bird sits with his back to us, then Green Mtn Mama and King-go faces us.
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