Mileage: 4.7 miles (2233.3-2238)
I slept 'til 7:30 and went out to breakfast for Huckleberry Pancakes with Commado. It was nice to be eating with someone else for a change. I then grabbed a care package from Laura, which had a morel mushroom-shaped candle, a postcard, and a miniature bear we'd gotten together in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It's our protector bear and I was glad to have it headed into bear country.
Then I went back to the room and burned the candle and did yoga inside the Motel 6, perhaps the first guest ever to do so in its history. I suspected this by the look of the other guests, most of whom were monthlies, smoking cigarettes, and were pretty heavyset.
I couldn't imagine any of them secretly burning candles and doing yoga in their rooms, but who knows. Around 11am we checked out and went to another hiker's room across the street and swapped stories. Her name was "Chosen" and she had a thinly veiled false humility, you see in a lot of hikers. She'd not so subtly drop into conversation about all the publicity she'd received and how many people were inspired by her and so on. It made me want to barf. She was nice to let us stay in her room while we waited for our ride, but like many hikers, it felt like she had something to prove, even though she was sixty-five and been hiking her whole life. Me and Commando had a ridiculously large lunch at Wendy's after not really being hungry when I walked in. I didn't really realize how much I had eaten until I saw the large pile of trash afterwards.
We then hung out with Chosen, and I helped her plan her route south on the Big Sky Cutodf, until some trail angels in town, Mark and his wife, took us back to the pass. We hiked a little under five miles on the road and then setup camp and chatted awhile before heading for bed. I cowboy camped under the stars, hearing the whistle and chugging of a nearby train as I fell asleep - the first time camping with another CDT hiker in months.
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