Yesterday’s long and tiring hike made for a strong want to sleep in today. Joe let me snooze for another hour before making us get up and get going. I was feeling extra sore today; particularly in my left hip. I recall scrambling over a fall tree yesterday where I swung my left leg up higher than it should have gone. The pain was temporary and I thought nothing of it. I suppose maybe I pulled something since I can barely walk on declines or inclines. We stop several times this morning for me to stretch, but the pain is constant.
My head is down most of the morning, my face wincing at nearly every step, so when joe puts his pack down off trail and steps away to go to the bathroom, I am completely oblivious. I pass Joe’s pack and continue down trail for another 3 hours. I thought it was extremely odd that I haven’t seen joe in 2, 3, 4, now 7 miles. This has never happened before. ‘Maybe he’s annoyed with my slow pace?’ I thought.
We had agreed this morning that we would stop at the Old Station General Store that’s in 7.5 miles for coffee. It’s a small camping store that’s about 1/3 of a mile off trail. I hobble up to the store expecting to see Joe’s pack sitting out front; it’s not there. I stumble inside and ask if anyone has seen a handsome bearded hiker, twisted steal and sex appeal, no one has.
At this point I’m nearly in tears, there’s no cell service, I have no way of getting in touch with Joe.
As I’m holding my phone to the sky, trying to get a bar, here comes Joe.
Apparently he had no idea I passed him without realizing, and he had walked an additional 4 miles in reverse to try to find me.
I was so relieved to see him.
We have lunch there at the picnic tables (a true luxury), and then head off. We still have miles to get in- but my leg is still hindering me.
We make it another 4 miles, we come across the Subway Caves and decide to check them out. The caves are 20,000 year old underground lava flows, the portion that’s open for us to walk through is only about a quarter mile.
As we exit the other side we decide to not hike further on, and to attempt to stay on the National Forest grounds. We sneak off to a hidden part of the picnic area and set up camp. Even though I felt we were breaking the rules, it was really nice to camp like a weekend camper- with trash cans, pit toilets, running water and picnic tables (a true luxury.)
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