August 24 and 25
Mileage: zero

Ski towns may not have souls but the food sure is good. Cheap sushi, jerk chicken, beef brisket, salad and tahini dressing, olives, dolmas, real potato salad. I am speaking, of course, of the whole foods hotbar. Also, I eat at Chipotle four times in two days. Coconut bliss in our motel room. South Park marathon on the TV. When I was a teenager this show was full of hate and kind of too violent- it seems to have become smarter and mellower since then. Still, I can only stomach so much of it. It’s just so… bro-y. I’m already over-bro-d out here. And my dude-friends are like the least bro-y bros there are! Taking the free bus around running errands. Outlet shopping for synthetic athletic seperates and then returning everything. Feeling sleepy. An excellent afternoon nap. At bedtime the three of us simulate our natural habitat in the motel by turning the A.C. on high, until it’s freezing. The only way any of us can fall asleep. I almost stay a third night- Buck-30 is in town and a friend of his has an apartment where Track Meat, Spark and I can crash- but at the last minute I decide to hike out. Everyone is watching Animal House and drinking vodka out of pineapples and I suddenly get the awful sensation that I’ve been in town too long and if I don’t get back to the woods and curl up on the good hard ground in the dark I’m going to lose my mind. I take the shuttle back to the trail and hike exactly one mile before setting up my tarp in a light drizzle, feeling the anxiety slough off of me. I’m free!

Photos on instagram