5/5/19

Mileage: zero

We’ve grown bored of zeros. At the beginning of the trail it was fun- let’s zero in every town! And our bodies were sore and exhausted, so it was great. We’re stronger now though, we don’t need to spend a whole day in bed in a motel room every section, doing nothing. And we miss our dogs a lot, we’re excited to finish this route. But! It’s Sunday, and we can’t pick up our resupply boxes from the post office until tomorrow. So here we are, eating trash gas station food and watching bad movies. I actually don’t know why I’m complaining. Everything is actually totally great.

Our next section, section six, is apparently the hardest section of the MRT. We’ll spend 12 miles walking down a canyon along the Black River, for one thing, crossing it again and again. This section hasn’t yet been vetted in its entirety by the makers of the route. According to trip reports I can find online, the Black River is often so swollen in spring that it’s not safe to cross at all. And this spring has extra water, so… There is a bail out alternate wherein we walk a dirt road, should we need it. I’m hoping we’re able to do the whole 12 miles, though. It sounds really fun.

There are also, apparently, long sections of slow cross country, with many blowdowns. We’re packing food for 15 mile days, so we can go as slow as we need to. I’m really excited.

I’m using these blog posts to help raise money for Francis, an El Salvadoran refugee who is raising funds for an asylum appeal. You can view his fundraiser here.

Francis’ fundraiser is currently at $3,700- day 27 from the MRT will go up on this blog when his fundraiser reaches $3,800 Let’s help Francis get the support he needs! Click here to check it out. And thank you! 😀