May 9th
Off Ed Jones Rd before Pie Town(302.4)-Pie Town(318.9)
16.5mi
I got to hiking by 6:30am and was motivated knowing I was headed into town. I slept amazingly well and it was in the mid 30s where I camped. I was in an area where ranchers have a lot of no trespassing signs, so I went up a hill and into some trees where it seemed legal. When I walked down the hill this morning out of the trees and jumped back on the road, I was hit by some very cold air! I couldn’t believe the difference just being in the trees and up a bit! I looked at my thermometer and it was 28 degrees. Whew! The 40mi road walk into Pie Town continued along with my boredom. The view really didn’t change other than more clouds gathering as the morning wore on.
I was pretty bored and frustrated that my PowerMonkey couldn’t charge more. Half this section was road walking and I would have listened to music and audiobooks more if I could have. I heard about the road walking on the CDT and now I get it…it’s long! I probably ordering another solar charger called the Suntastics sCharger-5…Rockin’ has been testing it out and it may give me much more power. Only catch is that it only charges directly and doesn’t have the battery to charge, but I can combine it with my PowerMonkey battery if I want that option. It’s really powerful and Rockin’ said it charged her iPhone fully in 1.5hrs of sunlight. We get that all day! I’ll keep you all posted, but would love MORE POWER out here for these road walks. I even jogged some of it today to break up the monotony.
I made it to Pie Town just after noon. Pie Town is a tiny town just off Hwy 60 that people stop at on road trips for their famous pies. The town has just two restaurants and most homes in the central part I was at are trailers or run down old homes with corrugated sheet metal roofs. Everyone seems to know everyone and it’s very laid back. Hikers stay at the hostel there called the Toaster House. The owner Nita no longer lives in the home and just leaves it open for hikers, bikers, travelers, etc for no charge and hikers donate what they can. She uses the money to also keep the fridge stocked and maintain the house which she no longer lives in. When I walked up, no one else was there and Nita drove up and immediately gave me a big welcome hug. Then she had her friend take our picture in front of the toasters hanging in front of the hostel.
Nita took me directly to the Pie Town Cafe where I got a wonderfully juicy burger with fries. I got a salad too, so be proud of that! Mmm:) My hunger and eating has been stellar this past week!
The cook there is Michael and he is friends with my hiking friend Shroomer who did the trail last year. There is no reception or wifi in most of town and there was wifi at the Pie Town Cafe. Michael was so kind that he even let me use his computer and I was on it for a couple hours at least! A couple hours later, Nita called the cafe to tell me she had brought hikers Wildflower and Bam Bam (aunt and nephew) to the other restaurant called the Pie-O-Neer. I went down the street and joined them and had some chocolate creme pie. When I went to pay, they told me the tab was covered by soon to be CDT southbounder Train. What a surprise and what an awesome idea! Train knew everyone goes there for pie and wanted to surprise me. It definitely worked! THANK YOU Train!!! Here I am with my pie from Train.
Everything in Pie Town closed at 4pm, so I headed to the Toaster House and the rest of the crew was trickling in. They missed out on the restaurants and will be taking a zero here tomorrow. Bam Bam, Wildflower, and I plan to head out tomorrow and I will take my first zero in the next town Grants, where I have my laptop waiting for me. Here we all are (Mark isn’t pictured, but he came in late tonight). There are 10 of us staying here tonight. Such a big group for the CDT!
It was fun to talk to everyone about their last few days. I had been leaving notes for them with times so they would know if they were ever close to catching up with me and they were! It turns out that I somehow had passed Puck and Sweetfish was ahead of me for a day…he was the one the hunters saw camped just 3/4mi ahead of me and he thought he was still behind me. I also found out that everyone had problems in the same burnt out section that I did and we all tried different combinations of the road and cross country before realizing the trail was there, it was just burnt. That made me feel a lot better that it wasn’t just me who couldn’t figure that section out!
I also got my first resupply that I didn’t send myself and my stepmom Robin did a great job! She even threw in my Entertainment Weekly Magazine, yay! We’ve all been talking about get Arrested Development movie and were excited to see it made the cover of EW. I also got my tent stakes I had overnighted…thanks Megan! I’m still short three stakes, but will make due and will get more stakes up trail. I also got chocolate chip cookies from my aunts and my Bubby(grandma). So fun! I even shared some cookies with some of the hikers and we love them. Cedar sent me a Pasta Primavera Mountain House and Jeff sent me a great letter and a Snickers that was made in London where they make them without trans-fats. He says its basically health food! ***Also, someone named Candace in California sent me the audiobook of Ellen Degeneress’s book. I’m really excited to put that on my MP3 player in Grants! Candace, if you can email me, that would be great.The email it came in did not send me any contact to thank you properly. Thanks to all of you for everything! It really is comforting and motivating to have such support!
I’ll spend a half day in town tomorrow and plan to hike out. Scattered thunderstorms are expected the next few days, so I’m hoping there is an open window to hike out tomorrow afternoon.
