Seeing my parents on the dirt road as I was having one of the hardest days on the trail was like…well imagine what the most relieving situation in the most stressful situation you can imagine. That is what it was like. I was flooded by emotions, flooded by 2 months of mostly solo hiking one one of the most challenging adventures I have ever undertaken, and there was my support team. Does it get better than that?

We wanted to spend some time together and I wanted to recover, both in gear and in body.

I’ve been eating almost non-stop, and it tastes so good. We headed into Salida to hit up a thrift store (I’d rather buy second hand when I have a choice) and got a new tank top and sunglasses, and hit the gear store for a new thermarest, stove (I decided to go canister), tent stake (yep lost another) and to Wally-world (not my favorite place but it has it’s merits) for a new watch, bandana, and a few other items. We had lunch at the local pizza place with Restless and ended up running into the warrior hikers for the first time since the CDT kickoff. Nice!

I’m feeling spoiled and it’s wonderful! Hiking starts tomorrow, but we figured out a plan for the next 4-5 days where my folks will meet me at road crossings and I’ll camp with them at night. Oh bliss!

Got a hair cut

And had a great time catching up