Last night, before dreaming of today’s hike to Sahuarita Road – where I’ll get off the trail and sleep in a bed! – I realized I didn’t have my vest. And it’s my only coat, really. I have the requisite puffy coat for around camp and wearing to bed when it’s cold. But for chilly mornings on the trail, I have my vest. It’s brand new and replaces one I’d had for about a decade. Somewhere around Kentucky Camp, I lost it. No clue what I did. But some guy named Matt found it, I learned tonight. I wonder if there’s any way I can get it back …

But I digress. Today I took my time at camp in the morning. I only had about 15 miles to hike, so no rush. Plus, I knew the day’s hike was easy, compared to the previous days. The first part of the hike was a lot of ups and downs – no surprise there. At one point I panicked when I checked the Guthook app and it said I was 3.3 miles from the trail. WHAT?! There had been a turn earlier; did I go the wrong way? Would I now add 6.6 miles to what should have been a short day? Thankfully, it must have been a satellite glitch. After looking at it three or four times, it suddenly said I was on the trail. Phew!

Yellow and orange wildflowers on the Arizona Trail near Sahuarita Road.Wildflowers En Route to Sahuarita Road

The flowers are starting to bloom along the trail. Maybe some are weeds and not wildflowers; I don’t know. But they sure are pretty and I love the greenery and pops of color.

Sometime late morning, the trail began a long, gentle descent down to the road below. It was fun to see the path winding downhill before me, and the mountain views were lovely.

Sandy, a trail angel, picked me up with her dog, Desi. She is a wonderful host, She actually ran me a bath with this wonderful eucalyptus epsom salt gloriousness in it, let me do my laundry and then made me a great taco dinner. And get this – she used to live in Sun Prairie, where I live! What a bizarre coincidence. I kind of don’t want to leave tomorrow, but I must.

As I was folding laundry tonight, I’m not seeing my warm sleeping shirt. There is NO WAY it got left at camp or fell out of my stuff sack while hiking. I feel like I’m going crazy with losing things. Sandy is in bed now, so I can’t check the washer or dryer or clothesline. It had better be one of those places!

Snowshoe

P.S. Guess I passed the 100-mile mark today!

15.5 miles
109.6 miles to date
690.4 miles to go

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©2018 Melanie McManus – All Rights Reserved

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