It’s another day of sitting in the hostel and rotating ice over my foot. The Continental Divide cyclist and Potter with his newly arrived friend leave in the morning, but Gil(GQ) is staying for another day or two.
Ole and Meadow Bruiser arrive. I last saw them at the library in Buena Vista. Gil and Meadow Bruiser were part of a large group that saw the sunrise from Mount Whitney on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2008, so there’s a bit of a reunion… another random meeting that can attributed to trail magic! It’s funny that I’ve met four different individuals on this trip that were all hiking on the PCT in ’08.
This is again just a quiet day at the hostel, quieter than yesterday. Two more bicycle tourists roll in – a couple from Cambridge Massachusetts doing the TransAmerica route with the Western Express variation. There are also two guys doing some mountain biking in the area, one of which is an aerospace engineer from the Denver area. They talk with Kim the host, and I get a kick out her description of the local biking trails. She clues them in on two of the routes off the main trail, the ones that only the locals know about. One is called “Blood” and the other is called “Guts!”
For dinner I cook up some grilled chicken breast, baked potatoes, carrots, and corn… all home-cooked style food that I’ve missed. The only beer available at the nearby gas station is Budweiser, and Gil shares that he’s been told it’s like drinking water or urine… already a well-trained beer snob!
Conversation tonight with Gil, the cyclists, a trail crew guy, and an older guy is as engaging as yesterday, but with more of a political / environmental slant. It’s mostly boils down to complaints about how we grow our food and work our jobs and live in our homes in different locations that are too separated from one another.
I share my sentiment that all of this popular “going green” by the corporations is just for better business logistics and public relations. My favorite example of this is those signs in motel rooms that tell you to re-use your towels because the owner of the establishment would like to save the earth… not to mention the utility bills and soap and labor cost.
I’m accused of being a cynic because I think that despite all our best efforts, we’re still doomed to overpopulate the world to the extent that there’s not enough resources to support us, so we either die for lack of water, food, energy, etc… or kill each other fighting over these things.
With two days of nothing but complete rest and infinite cycles of ice, my right foot has shown absolutely zero improvement. It may even feel a little worse. I don’t want (And can’t afford) to take even more infinite rest days in town, so after two full days of rest, it’s basically a choice of hike or go home.
I’ll be hiking tomorrow.
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