Start: Red Bear Welcome Center
Stop: Gold Pan Cabins
Today’s Miles: 22.4
Total CDT miles: 674.9
Shockingly, I slept great.. especially to be cowboy camping by a road. We woke early to frost all over everything though.. and neither Pebbles or I slept with our filters. Whoops. I don’t think they froze though.. hopefully. Pebbles had asked me last night if I thought we should sleep with them.. I looked at my weather app, saw a low of 42, and said “nope!” I don’t think he was too thrilled with my decision this morning. Between this and the lightening fiasco the other day-I’m not too sure that man trusts a single thing I say or do! Haha
Pebbles was naturally up faster than me. I thought he had already left by the time I came out of the porta potty at the welcome center, so I started walking only jump out of my skin when he suddenly passed me! He was in the other porta potty and I had no clue. I’m really doing great, here folks.
Overall, the day was pretty boring. I mean, the river went along the dirt road we were walking on, so the views were nice.. but we were constantly being dusted all day by people in their 4x4s. We did pass some cows in pastures and a tiny town, but at 10am when we walked through, nothing was open. Yall know I would have definitely bought something to eat or drink if it was available, my personal mission to single handedly support local economies and all.
For it to have frosted overnight, it sure got hot quick. Pebbles and I went from being in our puffy jackets to sweating buckets entirely too fast. The temperature change gave me whiplash. We popped up our umbrellas for a big chunk of the day.. just walking on a dirt road, trying to avoid the vehicles flying by.
Around 4pm, my stomach decided I needed a serious bathroom break. The problem? There was nowhere to go! To the left was open grassy land with a gorgeous river running through it, to my right was a huge rock wall. We ended up getting to a small town with just a few houses and a restaurant in it. I barreled into the restaurant (and general store) and practically mowed down another customer while trying to get myself to the bathroom!
Since I felt a little guilty for the time I took there, I talked Pebbles into staying at the restaurant for another burger. It wasn’t as good as yesterday, but it hit the spot! After we ate, we tried to decide if we should keep hiking a bit longer, and start the climb along the road, or if we should find this place called the “Gold Pan Cabins” and get a cabin and a shower for the night. My only issue for not wanting to keep walking was the fact that I didn’t think we’d find a decent spot to camp along the road-I mean-I couldn’t even find somewhere to poop!
We stayed. Haha. Pebbles was way less thrilled than I was, but he didn’t complain when he got some dang good cobbler and ice cream out of the deal, thanks to the sweet man that rents the cabins. We ate our dessert and then took showers and hand washed our clothes. We had to hang everything to dry, and the sun wasn’t nearly as strong now that it was evening, so I have a feeling I’ll have damp socks in the morning.
Our cabin has two bunk beds in it, so we both get a bottom bunk. They’re dry cabins and we have to use our quilts, but overall they’re comfortable enough, we’re warm and inside, and not finding a spot off the side of a dirt road.. so I’m happy! Tomorrow we’ll have to get as far as we can on this dang dirt road, and then we’ll get into South Fork where Pebble’s new shoes are the day after. The farther we make it tomorrow, the easier the post office will be. Bleh.
Alright, that’s all I got! Sweet dreams, yall!