The morning begins slowly. I make some eggs and sausage for breakfast and grab a latte from the local coffee shop that only serves americanos, lattes, and muffins.
Before I know it, I’m hurrying to get my 10 day resupply organized. We head on over to the post office, where we end up shipping five days of food to Diamond Lake, where we will be next. We decided to ship food ahead here instead of Crater Lake, our next destination.
Dad had shipped his box to Crater Lake, and it was late getting there! But he did get to meet Uncle Dave and his family who drove down from Washington to spend the weekend there!
The rest of the group goes on after the post office. It’s a sunny day, warm, and I’m in a corner, standing on my feet trying to find a place to get a pedicure.
These are shower shoes I got after I lost my Tevas. I didn’t want to wear my shoes so I wore these. Now my feet hurt so badly just standing in these!
I call about seven different places for a pedicure. I’m used to just walking in and getting a pedicure. Plus, normally my mom books that stuff and knows what to look for.
Me?
I don’t know.
So I’m stressed out, huddled in the corner of some lock boxes of the post office, again flustered and feeling foolish for not having looked into this earlier.
The best offer I get is an appointment an hour from now. I don’t want to walk somewhere to sit in a chair for an hour!
My feet hurt, I have two in grown toe nails, and the skin on my heels and toes have thickened to that of a dinosaur! I just want my feet taken care of! I thought this would be the solution! I didn’t even think of booking an appointment.
I quit. I decide to head back to the Air BnB. But my stupid flip flop is broken, so the knob that goes in between the toes keeps popping out. I fix it twice before taking the sandal off and walking the rest of the way barefoot.
It’s silly, but I’m fighting back tears about this whole ordeal. When I get into the Air BnB, I toss my new fanny back to the side and crawl under the covers.
My feet hurt! The arches of my feet hurt! The flip flops make it worse! The in-grown toenails hurt! They just hurt all the time.
So yes, I’m crying over a pedicure. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth.
I just want my feet to feel okay for even a day. To not wake up with stiff feet. To not hobble after my lunch break. To not feel tight after a fifteen minute break.
I text the group and ask them to grab me a foot scrub since they went to Winco.
At least Rafiki found me one. I’ve been looking for these at every store I go to, but can’t seem to find them.
The group returns home. After an afternoon of rest, we throw on Sonic, which is a surprisingly good movie!
I don’t even make it halfway through the second movie before heading off to bed!
Miles hiked: 12.4
Mile marker: 1731.6
Total ascent: 2800 ft
Total descent: 1700 ft
The following day is a slow morning that turns quickly into packing and cleaning up the Air BnB.
However, the shower doesn’t stay hot for more than fifteen minutes so my feet can’t get soft. I end up heating water on the stove and adding it to some mixing bowls to put my feet in.
After using the foot scrub, my feet aren’t nearly as dead looking as they were before!
We bus to Ashland, where we go to the gear store and I buy some new flip flops. I really need something better for my feet!
Puppy Momma, a trial angel, picks us up and we head on back to Callaghan’s lodge. Voyager gets her new Garmin watch she ordered (hers wasn’t working properly) and we drag ourselves onto the trail.
It’s a paved road for a mile or so that goes along the highway, then it turns into trail.
“I heard Oregon was supposed to be flat, cut wide, and smooth. So far it’s none of those things,” Voyager says after we’ve been on trail for a bit.
And it’s true. It’s a lot more uphill than I expected. I’m also quite sore. My hips hurt. My hamstrings hurt yesterday. Maybe it’s all the extra miles lately. Or maybe it’s because I squat to urinate with my pack on.
I’m guessing it’s that.
We trudge along for a while. None of us seem very fast, but we crank out 12 miles and head to a somewhat open tentsite. We cowboy camp, and hoping to see some meteors tonight!
A creepy voodoo doll is hanging from a tree. It looks like dental floss is hanging it, and the doll itself is made of sticks.
I want to yank it off the tree and stomp on it, but I’m too afraid of what might happen if I even touch it.
I know, I know. Superstition.
You call it superstition, I call it creepy.
After an orange sunset, I’m lying down looking at a dark blue sky barely lit by a sun that’s off to bed. No meteors in sight.
I’ll keep looking a little bit longer.
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