Day 35... the road goes on forever, but the party never ends...

Mile 369.3 to Mile 406.6 (BobCat Fire Hwy 2 Detour)

I returned to trail this morning with only a few miles of trail to go before running into a fire closure. (Wildfires in California sometimes leave parts of the trail impassable and therefore closed... sometimes there is an easy walk around sometimes there is not). This one had a pretty simple, mostly carless hwy walk around.

Saying goodbye to Charlie...not really sure when i would get to see him again was hard. Heading out from Inspiration Point in the early morning light... it felt good to be on trail. I had promised Nathan I would attempt to summit Baden Powell (a side trail... i had convinced Nathan, an Eagle Scout, that he had to do it and he did and left a note for me at the top) ... but about halfway up the endless switchbacks... I realized I didn’t have time to summit and get through the 22 mile hwy walk in one day... I turned around knowing I lived close enough to summit another time. I had to backtrack back to Vincent Gap and begin walking along hwy 2 for 22 miles.

The road crews at the gate closing the road to cars cheered me on as I passed and at first it was kind of cool... walking down the middle of a large mountain hwy all by myself... about 8 miles in I stopped for lunch and see another hiker speeding down the road... it was Spirit! Having taken a week off at home... he had caught up to me on trail... I enjoyed the company and we walked the next 8 miles together... then my feet began to hurt... and scream... and yell... the pavement and keeping Spirit’s pace was not kind. I decided to take a long break to let them rest and Spirit went on... with about three miles to go... and dodging the cars (the road was open to traffic from about 5 miles to the end of the trail closure)... I was so over walking on pavement and the what was left of treads of my shoes from 400 miles of walking were completely gone from the wear of blacktop by the end... and next thing I know here comes Spirit riding shotgun in a hitch.... apparently he had the same thoughts... got a nice couple to not only pick him up, but backtrack and pick me up as well....

Since we had gotten a ride for three miles, we decided to hike three miles in to camp at a horse camp.. rather than camping at the campground at the end of the closure as we had planned. It was a great spot... made better by great company and catching up....

Overall a decent return to trail as the miles and climbs came easy... but road walking quickly went to the bottom of my bucket list...