I woke up at 4:30am but went back to sleep, catching a couple more hours, and left a thank-you note for Oceana and Kenton. I thought Kenton must be out on his boat trip and I didn't want to disturb Oceana. I headed out, my feet were numb again. By the time I was passing the Requa Inn they were still frozen and I stopped in to warm them. I wished I had checked to see if Oceana was available to thank them again. They were so generous.
I talked to a couple at the Requa about my story and they bought me a mimosa. They had just come from a scuba diving trip. After my feet were sufficiently warm I went on my way and about a mile down the road the couple came walking by, they owned property there.
I talked to a couple at the Requa about my story and they bought me a mimosa. They had just come from a scuba diving trip. After my feet were sufficiently warm I went on my way and about a mile down the road the couple came walking by, they owned property there.
The trail ahead was through the forest and had some elevation change. It briefly ran along the ocean and then resumed climbing and descending hills. The trees grew bigger, larger and larger redwoods, and there seemed to be more and more bear poop.
I could see I was getting close to Crescent City and turned on my music, jogging when the trail was even enough. Nobody appeared to be there but me, I started singing out loud. A couple of tenths of a mile later I saw two women sitting on a ledge having sandwiches. I stopped to say hi, since I figured they had heard me. They were from San Diego and were also trying to do the entire CCT, but in sections, when they had time. This weekend they had flown to Oregon to do the northernmost segment. They had the same guidebook I did, but in paper form! We reminisced about its idiosyncrasies. They told me about the trail closure at Damnation Creek before I saw the sign, posted where the trail met Highway 101, and about how they had hired a boat to cross the river ahead. I told them I was planning to take the alternate route on the road to avoid hiring a boat.
When I reached the highway I talked briefly with a girl holding a stop sign for construction work. She was so blown away that she gave me what she had left of her lunch: a wrap, a nectarine, and gatorade! As I kept walking I saw one of her coworkers, he pointed out a dead bear to the side of the road. It was pretty big. A few minutes later the girl pulled up again and parked her car to say goodbye. While she was there two other female coworkers stopped their cars to talk to her. She told them about me and they were so enthused that they gave me their lunch leftovers too -- crackers, apples, Oreos, an asian snack mix. And then one of them remembered that their boss had bought them mochas at Starbucks that morning, but neither one had drunk theirs. Two large mochas to power me through Crescent City and on to the Oregon border!? Perfect!! I had just been thinking Starbucks sounded so good. The first girl I met came back with a taser flashlight that she wanted me to have. The taser wasn't charged but the flashlight blinked and had points on the end that could be used as a weapon. I turned it on in conjunction with my headlamp as I traversed the ten miles to the city.
I should have known better than to ingest so much sugar at once, or maybe I was coming down with something. I was nauseous as I ran down the road and had to stop at the porta-potties meant for the construction workers. Eventually it passed.
A few hours later I had made it to Crescent City and stopped at a gas station to charge my phone one last time. Just a marathon to go.
Trail Notes
-CCT trail section closed north of Damnation Creek junction so took the Highway 101 to Crescent City
-Took alternate route to avoid hiring boat shuttle across the Smith River, rejoined regular route at Mouth of Smith River Road
I met the singer and his girlfriend this morning
Woven Roots "I Can Feel" (Desert Vibes) directed by Tim Cash from FAR from EARTH Films on Vimeo.
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