A few days out of Pine I got a text from Chaps, the woman whose company I had enjoyed hiking and meeting with on and off for over a month. She told me she was taking a number of days off in Flagstaff and had a hotel room there with a friend of hers. She invited me to spend the night with them in the room if I could get there by Saturday night. It was a longshot, but I was eager to try. I was filthy and ready for a good shower, a way to wash my clothes, and some good company. Also the mornings were still quite cold so I wasn’t sorry to think about sleeping inside.

I thought about my morning routine on these chilly mornings. I woke up and did everything I could while remaining in my sleeping bag. I ate breakfast, made sure my water bottles were filled for the day, got my water filter, spoon, pot, stove, and flashlight organized and ready to go back into the pack, I let the air out of my pad and rolled it up before finally rueing the fact that I had to get out of my sleeping bag and waste all that wonderful warmth. I stuffed my sleeping bag and put it in first into my pack. I then added the few spare clothes I had ( a pair of longjohns and a forty year old shirt I could sleep in). These served as my pillow at night when I was too tired to change out of my hiking clothes. Then I added the pot, cup, spoon, flashlight, CNoC water bags, my pee jar, toilet paper and a few miscellaneous items into the pack.

After putting all that outside of the tent, I swept out the tent and crawled out. I packed up the tent, put it in the pack and topped it off with my food. I’d like to keep the heavier items towards the top of the pack and the food for lunch. I want to keep easily accessible.

I tried to stretch my back and knees but it was hard to do on these cold mornings. I was eager to get moving and create some heat. But first I had to take care of business by digging a hole and pooping. I was usually pretty chilly so I often set off down the trail wearing my wind jacket and knowing that I would soon be stopping to take it off.

The hiking was still pretty easy, although there were a few short, steep up and downs and a lot more rock on the trail. At least this rock wasn’t as loose and slippery under foot as the rock had been. It did make it hard to find a place to put up a tent at night.

My water was all coming out of what they call cow tanks, which are really little ponds dug for cattle roaming the national forest land. Most of these were brown and muddy, but at least they filtered fairly clear.

I was still seeing some new flowers almost every day. Although they weren’t as showy as the ones in the desert they still brought me joy. I also encountered small patches of snow and a new menace to walk upon. The Ponderosa Pines kept dropping their pinecones. A few times. I got hit by them as they fell, but what was really troublesome was when the trail was completely covered with pinecones. I had to be careful not to twist an ankle on them. Sometimes I occupied myself by seeing how far up the trail I could kick one.

At one point, I realized that there probably weren’t many hikers within a day of me in either direction. And I had a brief moment of feeling alone in the immense wilderness. And then I thought, ” no I’m not alone. I’m just by myself,” and somehow that made a difference. It allowed me to accept the companionship of the trees and creatures around me, and also of all the friends who send me encouraging messages and comments on my blog.

I was aware that this was another step towards cultivating enjoying my own company and helping those hurt little parts of me who always felt overwhelmingly alone to know that they don’t have to feel that painful aloneness anymore.

During this stretch I crossed the 500 mile mark. It seemed like a big accomplishment, but then I thought of my plans for the summer and realized that this only puts me 1/4 of the way through. but on the bright side after I hike 200 miles of the 1200 mile PNT, I will have gone halfway.

Finally I reached the tiny village of Mormon Lake, which is more of a summer vacation town than a year round residence. The post office in town had shut down, but the building was still used to store hiker packages. I had UPSed myself a package here and was happy to see it waiting for me in the old post office.

I repacked my pack, did some calorie loading in the small store, and set back out on the trail the same day. In hiker lingo going in and out of town without stopping is known as a hero day. Considering that my tendency on this trip has been to do at least one, if not two, zeros I was glad to pull off a hero. And as I pulled out, I realized I just might make it into Flagstaff in time to spend the night with Chaps.