Day 42 - Resting in Independence

Wednesday, May 27

As I have said before, rest days for a through hiker aren't really restful. 

For breakfast, Willy and I had coffee and chocolate cinnamon cake with Jim, the motel owner.

Willy spent much of the morning trying to find an air leak in his Therma-rest Neoair mattress. In the end he couldn't find the leak and decided to send his mattress home. He is going to use a Z-rest pad instead. 

I went through my gear and decided to send home my digital camera and a few other items that I haven't used. The lens on the camera won't retract properly. I mailed them at the Post Office. 

I set out my food and made a shopping list for snack items I needed. We will need a maximum of seven days of food. We will be resupplying at Vermillion Valley Resort, a bit less than 100 miles away. 

We set off mid morning to get breakfast at the local cafe. Unfortunately the cafe was closed on Wednesday, so we had breakfast at Subway. 

On the way back we did our shopping at the Chevron and Shell mini-marts. I must confess that the Chevron store was a disappointment as it had very little selection. Yogi's guide led me to believe that the Chevron was the better store. It wasn't. 

I came back and assembled my food. I finished by loading it into my bear canister. My pack is now ready for tomorrow's hike. 

At lunchtime we had real Mexican burritos from the local vendor.

I also took a moment to get a picture of our motel. There are six units and Jim, the owner, was busy installing a central vacuum system.

I called the person who can shuttle us back to the trail. We will be leaving at 6:30 tomorrow morning. 

Later this afternoon we shared a few beers with Jim. He told us stories about his former career as a truck driver and about how he got into the motel business.

Later in the afternoon, he rented two more rooms and then showed us how he turned on the "No Vacancy" sign - it was all done manually.

Willy and I were going to have a meal at the fancy French restaurant, but it too was closed. What is it with restaurants in this town? We ended up going back to Subway for dinner. 

I didn't mention it, but a couple of days ago I managed to do a "turtle" while walking down the trail. A turtle is when you fall down and land on your back with your feet and arms pointed upward. It happened when another hiker was coming up behind me. Instead of stepping off the trail, I twisted my head around and tripped on a rock. Down I went, landing squarely on my back. I had to be helped back to my feet. Fortunately no damage was done other than to my pride!

I am feeling very anxious about hiking up 2,000 feet tomorrow to get back onto the trail. Wish me luck and strength!