Monday, April 23, 2007

4/19 Rain and pizza

14.5 miles hiked today, 523.2 miles N
Partnership Shelter

I woke at one of the nicest hostels thus far and ended at one of the nicest shelters. What makes the hostel nice you ask. It is not the beds or phone. It is not bathrooms or showers. It has heat! I slept warm and cozy on the floor of a small room last night.
After that I packed up and went in search of my trail data that Dana had mailed to me. It wasn't at the Troutdale Trading Post but that had recently changed hands and names so I suspected it may be at the post office. I headed down the only major street I could find and sure enough about a block later I found the the postoffice. To my delight they did have the letter with my data and a candied heart from Dana. Thank you!
I sent home my book "In A Sunburnt Land" as I had finished it (very good) and headed over to the old "Trading Post", now Jerry's, for breakfast. I got a couple biscuts with egg, cheese, and tomato which turned out very good and also a side of tater tots(hash browns). Jerry let me use their computer and I took care of a bunch of bussiness and caught up on my email. Ted, my old boss, had some questions so I gave him a buzz and it sounds like things are doing ok in my absence. Jerry's wife (sorry, I forgot your name) gave me a ride back to the trail. There fellow thru hiker .357 and his family were set up doing trail magic. Bowser and McGyver where there relaxing and I joined them. I seem to have been the bringer of rain though as the sky clouded up about 1/2 hour later. The hike from there on was easy minus the streach if an hour or so of cold hail and rain that pelted us. My rain jacket turned out to do very little so I got soaked through. :( I will have to replace that when !
I get a chance. Bowser is a nut since he wore no rain gear and was only annoyed by the sting of the hail on the back of his neck. In the end we made it to the shelter with time to spare. Oh, what a shelter! It is about 100 yards from the road and forest service guest center so it has a shower, a phone with free local calls, and as a result pizza delivery. I ordered a salad, pizza, garlic bread, and desert. They forgot to deliver the salad but the rest of the food was welcomed. I ate till I was on the edge of sick and ended up saving the rest for breakfast. The shelter is huge but there were a lot of people there so it is mostly full. About 10 or so were drinking heavly and generally being annoying but they left to go to a bar so we have peace for a little while. It is really starting to warm up around here, I think I will be able to get rid of my cold weather gear soon.

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