Wendy here with another trail update!
Today was a short 7 mile day because we had to go into the wonderful town of Marion to resupply! After that we enjoyed a party at the shelter with the fun patrol. And we celebrated a birthday! Allow me to take you through the day of a town run for a hiker.
The first ingredient to any town run is tons of people. Because most hikers resupply in the same towns, everyone within a day of you is trying to line up to make it in and out of the town in one day. This is used as a technique to spend less money in town by not having to stay there and purchase a hostel or lodging. That means that the few campsites and shelter before it will always be packed!
The next ingredient is an important one- transportation. While we all agreed to walk 2185 miles, walking 4 miles down a busy backcountry road is one way is just unacceptable! There are 3 possible solutions- a town you literally walk through, a shuttle, or hitch hiking.
There are only a handful of towns on the trail that are truly walked through. These a true blessings to behold! However, most times you are left with one of the latter two options. Shuttles always cost money but are very reliable. If you are willing to fork out the cash, it is a very quick way to get in and out of town. By far the most common method among hikers, however, is hitch hiking. It is free and available at every road crossing!
Well I just realized what a huge bit of rambling I was doing! Stay tuned and I will talk about the hitch hiking in more detail- it really is exciting!
The final ingredient to town is my favorite- town food! Everyone will be looking for one thing and one thing only; the fabled All You Can Eat (AYCE!) It is the thing of hiker dreams and we will all eat pretty much anything as long as they will let us eat as much as we want of it!
Marion was a wonderful town and we got all we needed- food resupply, Mexican food, and beer! It was a great place, although tough to get a hitch in and out of! We got to hang out for most of the day with Triggs and her dog Grommet. Triggs played ultimate and soccer and has a lot of sports to talk about with Breeze and I! As for Grommet, Breeze and I are slowly being accepted as friends.
The night ended with an awesome night of the game Mafia and birthday celebration! Mafia is an in the head mystery that is fun to play in groups! Unfortunately Breeze was a town person and they were all slain. Finally, Fire Hazard celebrated her birthday! This trail birthday was complete with cake, a cupcake, and a card! It helps to have a birthday just outside of town.
That's all for now, more to come!
Wendy
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