Day 173 (CT 11)

Day 173 (CT 11): 51 miles

It was a cold but quick morning down to US 50. Winter is coming. I decided I’ll be doing the Collegiate East route instead of the west. The East is allegedly less scenic but I did the West last year on the CDT so I thought I’d give the other side a try.

For the first few hours of the morning, I forgot it was my birthday. When I remembered, I decided I would at least treat myself to a good meal since I wasn’t going to be getting irresponsibly drunk like a normal birthday. So when I got down to US 50 I started hitching. It was not a good spot, and took a little bit, and the car that stopped was going the opposite direction from Poncha Springs, but I was up for an adventure. I went to Sargents which is a tiny town that is basically a gas station and cafe combination that is overloaded with dirt bikers. I got some fried chicken and had enough Dr Pepper to kill a small bear.

To get back to trail, a new Camaro stopped to give me a ride. He asked if it was okay if he “broke the car in a little” going up the mountain. I told him it’s his car so do whatever he wants. It was wild. We were going 80 mph around curves in the road and passing cars left and right like it was a video game. My heart dropped down to my stomach when we started to skid on a turn and there was no guard rail on the side of the mountain. But if I’m being honest, it was pretty fun. It felt like a roller coaster, except I didn’t rationally know it was 100% safe like a roller coaster. Maybe that was the thrill.

It was quite a dichotomy going from that, back to walking 3 mph. But I might’ve been going faster. I was freakin jacked up on Dr Pepper. I’m an anti-caffeine anti-coffee guy but you people that have it everyday are on PED’s.

In the afternoon, I got a bloody nose while listening to Limp Bizkit which seemed pretty fitting. I had good cell reception so I spent the whole evening calling friends discussing everything from the obligation to contribute to the good of the world, to quoting The Benchwarmers, to planning how hard we’re gonna party when I return to Columbus for the OSU-Michigan game.
The caffeine carried me for a while, and I felt good, and the terrain was pretty easy. All of that COMBINED with the fact that it’s supposed to storm all day tomorrow with “potential flooding,” made me hike past 3am and have a pretty big day. I did a kinda long road walk after dark which is never ideal, but thankfully the road wasn’t too busy. I’m camped right before a road into Buena Vista so I might just retreat into town and hide out all day tomorrow to avoid the storm. “You can either go right into the storm, or go around it. But you must never await it’s coming.”

Song of the day: take a look around-limp bizkit