Castella-Etna

Day 44 

 1500-1516.43  (16.43) 

Our shortest day on trail in a while! The high today was still 100 degrees although this is the beginning of the end of the heat wave. It is HARD hiking in this heat and thoughts of lakes are constantly flying in and out of my head, but I know that I will be back in that landscape soon enough. Looking up at castle crags throughout the day was pretty stunning and looking down on them at the end of the day was rewarding. My foot rolled in pretty hard today on a rock and I am continuing to try to walk it off each time I re-roll it. It hurts, but it's nothing I can't still walk on. I sat and talked to a man named Van Gogh for quite a while today. He paints for trail angels along the way as a way of saying thank you, but in real life he is the creative thinker behind apps in Holland. We had a few interesting conversations about people doing art out here and writing as a form of art. He explained that his writing about internal thoughts was much more important to him than writing about the scenery. Later that day when I was setting up camp, I thought about how many untold stories there are about the land out here. We got a glimpse of some history over the last few days spent with local family and it didn't really dawn on me until I got out here again. This land has been occupied by people for centuries and there is so much behind all of it. I didn't appreciate it when I was at their house as much as I do when I'm sitting out here. I thought more about why I'm out here and what I love about being out here. Everything that makes us ignorant, occupied and ultimately absent from our own lives disappears out here and we are left with ourselves, our thoughts, an occasional stranger and the beautiful scenery. It leaves me having to get to know myself more, not by social media standards, not by competitive standards, not by external opinions, just me in pure. It's pretty cool stuff. 

Day 45

1516.43-1540.61 (24.18) 

The first word out of my mouth today was "woah". The sunrise was just beginning and the scene panned out in front of me as soon as I opened my eyes. I packed up camp and made my way down trail. After about 8 miles some trail magic appeared and it was the best I've seen yet. They had hamburgers, hot dogs, apples, oranges, beer, coconut water, soda, whiskey, you name it. I filled up with water and then a liter of coconut water. I had an orange and then discovered that their were tortillas and cheese meant for the hamburgers so I put in a special cheese quesadilla order and it was AmAZIng. Full and hydrated I walked on for a long lunch break at deadfall lake. Around 4 we began walking again after some swimming. About 5 miles down the trail a trail angel we had met before, "coppertone" was waiting for hikers with his traditional root beer floats. 

Day 46

Monday 1562

Stop at springs  

Lunch break at road with Jig Salmon and some trail Angels who gave us  Gatorade and doughnuts. Raspberry picking as we strolled into and early camp with stretching and massage. It was frustrating at first to be waking west so much but I'm beginning to accept it for what it is. 

Day 47 

1587.14 (24.8) 

Today was my interview with missoula county for a Sexual violence prevention outreach position. Since the interview was at 9, I slept in a bit knowing that I would reach my highest point of the day only 6 miles in. As I began to see the trail weaving in and out of ridges I was beginning to realize that I was going to have to drop my pack and scramble up a hill. So that's what I did! And ripped the top of my shoe off in the process. But the interview went really well and if nothing else, I was able to see some familiar faces on a nice tall rock pile. Don't worry, I cleaned the dirt off my face and rebraided my hair before the FaceTime call. Later in the day we met a guy named jimmy who offered some chairs and water for hikers at the top of a big climb. He showed us the arrowheads that he spends his days making.  The rest of the walking went smoothly until the last few miles. We ended up hiking on a (long) cliff side for the evening with no campsites. Both of us miscommunicated, both of us were hungry and tired and just wanted to stop but couldn't with the landscape. Eventually we plopped down on the side of the trail and called it a day with a few extra miles in our pockets. 

Day 48 

1587.14-1601 (13ish) 

With much to look forward to today, I was up early and ready to walk. I set off for my ten miles to the road bit slowed down to talk with some section hikers. A large group of them were out supporting their 81 year old family friend who had been sectioning the trail for 18 years. About two miles off the road I walked into Keith who had driven from Montana to hike the next section with us. He drove Marissa and I down the mountain to meet up with my grandparents who had planned to trail angel us. We spent the afternoon lazing around the RV park before heading up the road. Since we spent so much time at the park we only hiked about 4 miles onto trail. We camped with a triple crown thru hiker.