After two consecutive 20+ mile days, we decided we needed an easy day today. I didn’t set an alarm but woke up naturally at 7:45 when nature called. It used the voice of a blue jay. That damn bird had been bothering us, Jordi, and Alba all last night and was already at it this morning. I can understand the demand for open carry on mornings like this. Plus, there was a biker coughing that really annoyed me…
So much for sleeping in today without an alarm. We were already enjoying our delicious chia pudding and hot coffee in bed when Alba and Jordi emerged from their tent. They seemed very surprised when they returned from the facilities to find us all packed up and ready to go. They even said we were fast getting ready! I like these misinformed Europeans. We left the park and they said they’d be 15 minutes behind us. They must have taken advantage of our departure to make other travel plans because we never saw them again.
We had a really nice trail climbing out of the park up to Old route 101. It must be really old, because there wasn’t a lot of pavement left. It has been reduced to a one lane track that I’m assuming will be around for a long time since there are still power lines running along the road. As we started dropping down to new 101, we did encounter a line,an driving up to check on the lines and road.
The ranger I talked to yesterday had given me a real good description of the route into town. I knew we had less than 2 miles of walking on the shoulder of 101 before we dropped down to the beach which takes us all the way to town. We were going slow enough for us to catch up with ourselves. The only possible explanation is that Alba and Jordi decided to take the bus north with Josh in order to ditch us. We even stopped at the Crazy Norwegian for lunch once we got into town. We both brushed our teeth and were on good behavior. They never showed.
We gave up waiting and backtracked down 101 to Ryan Sea Crest Motel where our trail angel, Alice (we’re still working on a trail name for her but keep getting vetoed—we might need some reader suggestions) sent us a resupply package. We’re pretty sure she is watching our gps tracker because the minute our feet touched concrete in town, she texted us about the package.
It had only taken us less than 3 hours to hike into town and eat lunch. We actually beat the package to the motel by over an hour. We spent the afternoon recovering from our big mileage days, showered, and did laundry before walking into town for supper. Even on short days, we still walk more than we report.
EFG