Wednesday, October 30th

Wednesday, October 30th. Day 134

Today's miles = 26 Total CDT miles = 2,135.8

I woke up this morning to a donkey next to my tent and a mouse in my shoe. I would much rather have the mouse in my shoe than the tarantulas that I've been seeing everywhere. I woke up once on the PCT and had to shake a scorpion out of my shoe. I think it's officially time to start sleeping with my shoes in the mesh of my tent. By the time I had the motivation to get out of my tent this morning the donkey that had been "eeehhooonnnn" ing all morning had made his way back to the brush and I couldn't get a picture of him. After spending about 30 minutes looking for the donkey I finally gave up and started the days hike. I've heard that donkeys can be mean out here anyway...wild donkeys, who would have thought?

The whole hike today was on a dirt road. I have no complaints about the hike except that it was cold and stormy most of the day. There were a few climbs but I never really realize them too much when I'm on a road. I got into Pie Town in time to eat at one of the only two establishments. The town is literally called Pie Town and it's a highway with two pie cafes..nothing else. It's basically a pit stop for travelers to get some pie where about 40 people reside. Despite this, Pie Town was one of my favorite stops on the CDT. There is a woman who owns a house on a dirt road that no longer lives there. She allows hikers and bikers to stay there and use whatever they need. I walked up to the house and there were toasters hanging on the fence and from the trees. Perhaps that's why they call it the toaster house. The door had a note on it that read, "No one lives here anymore so make yourselves at home". It felt very strange walking into a house that was fully furnished and appeared to have been lived in. No one was there but there were little notes around the house that directed me to certain things, for example, there was a note explaining the laundry and shower. There was a note saying there was pizza and beer in the fridge. There was a note to please take smoking outside. I walked around exploring the house for a while before I settled on the upstairs loft bedroom as my own for the night. I then began to make a fire in the wood burning stove which I kept up all night to keep the place warm. It was fantastic to sit in a home next to the fire. The kitchen was fully functional as well. It was so much better than any hotel.

Panama and Bethany ended up arriving a few hours later and we all spent the evening in the living room with the wood burning stove reading the books that lined the walls. I couldn't have asked for a better day on trail.