June 30
Mileage 17
1,071.5 miles hiked

I wake at 5 a.m. sharp, even though I didn’t fall asleep until after 10. Well fuck. This is going to be a long day. Why does my body do this?

The last of the thunderstorms blew over in the night and the morning sky is clear. I have no water for tea and I eat sad bars for breakfast. Time for the long hot roadwalk to Anaconda. I feel exhausted. Bring it on!

Except here’s what happens- when I hit the last six miles of the roadwalk, which is on the paved shoulder of the highway, I stick out my thumb and get a ride into town, changing my 23 mile day to an easy 17. Fuck it! Fuck it all! I haven’t skipped a mile of this trail yet, but I’m thirsty and hungry and we’re in a heat wave and I just cannot right now.

I get a room first thing and take an incredible shower. Anaconda is a “long, skinny town”, which I think is funny. Get it?

Fast food. Taxidermy shops. Heat. I find the boys at a coffee shop, looking as fried as I feel. At the grocery store I buy a bunch of boring trail food, as well as exciting things like raspberries and gluten-free muffins. Then we all cram into the motel room with the AC rumbling and eat ice-cream in the flickering light of Terminator II on the bigscreen TV. It’s Spark’s birthday! I give him a bag of jerky, just like in 2013. Tomorrow we do the eleven mile paved roadwalk out of town… I mean I guess.

Photos on instagram