Final stretch into Etna was not an easy one. We left ourselves 19 miles of ups and downs, getting to the trailhead around 1:10 pm. Shockingly we got crazy lucky and within one minute of pulling up to the road a car came by and we got a ride into town (this never happens for us!) Sadly our friends the next day waited 1.5 hours with fewer than 5 cars driving by in that time and no luck for the hitch.

Etna was so good to us! We resupplied with the friendliest grocer, charged our stuff at the gear shop, got sundaes and burgers at the brewery, got $5 showers at the town park and set up camp right there with 30 other hikers. We joined a group of folks for beers in the park and got free barbecue food from a company having a staff party. Our group had a late night (past 9 pm ??)game of Settlers of Catan under a nice easy-up. I won!

We are big Etna fans now.

We woke in the park, got breakfast burritos and charged our gear, and slowly made our way to the Distillery to meet up with old friends for a short cross over in town. Unfortunately, our friends had that 1.5 hr wait for a hitch, so we didn’t leave Etna until around 2 pm after they arrived and we got to briefly hang with them.

The trail was mellow, so we took it easy and found a huge empty campsite by a creek. Overly friendly deer harassed us all night, but we didn’t mind because at least the evening air cooled off a smidge.