Burger Not

Day 5, Sunday June 21, 2015
Start 01-128WT creek on Stock Driveway, mile 1528.4
End Battle Pass 01-212TH, mile 1536.8

My hiking plan showed the first trail town, Encampment, as optional. It is only three days away from the next trail town, and I do not like to space them too close together. For one thing, hikers overeat in towns to make up for lost calories, and too much town food makes a hiker bloated and sluggish when stating the trail again.
So Encampment was optional, if my food supply could stretch all the way to Rawlins, which might happen if I was able to hike several days of twenty-plus miles. But the trail had other ideas…
Also, Encampment is known as a tough hitch. I like to avoid those.
But I do not have enough food to last to Rawlins, so Encampment here I come. Besides, a hamburger would be mighty fine after six days of hiking.
The descent down to Battle Pass was wet with snow melt, making the trail a creek. No mind, I’ve gotten rather used to wet-foot hiking these past days. My new shoes dry out quickly when the path is dry again– just hike for a couple of hours and the wet sensation is gone. And wool socks have kept my feet warm enough though miles of slushy snow.

So here I was, minding my own business, walking on grass soaked with snow-melt, when suddenly this happened.

Perhaps it is hard to see from the angle of the photo, but the leg is muddy up to mid-thigh. The ground had suddenly collapsed and my leg went all the way in. So naturally I tried pushing on my trekking pole to free the leg, and the trekking pole goes all the way in.

It is like post-holing in dirt, or sod-sand instead of quicksand. I am about to hitch in an hour, so this will not do. I strip off shoe, gaiter, sock, and pants, and rinse everything in a nearby pool of water.
At windy Battle Pass, near the sign for the CDT, I hitch by holding up my “Hiker to Town” sign. One hour, no joy. Sometimes 15 minutes go by without a car passing in my direction. I am about to give up and take a break when a car stops, and a kind couple give me a ride to Riverside, one mile from Encampment where the convenience store and more lodging opportunities exist. The couple live outside Riverside, and warn me a big Woodcutters Jamboree brought a lot of people into town. They also let me know the convenience store is about to close in ten minutes, so they drop me off there directly to get my town food snacks for the evening. The store also rents cabins, so I take care of lodging at the some time. Jane is very friendly and makes sure the cabin has been cleaned from after the Jamboree.
I get cleaned up and walk across the street to the Mangy Moose for a burger, since Jane had let me know the other restaurant in town was closed for a special event. The sign posted on the Moose said “The Kitchen is Closed” to recover from the Jamboree and they would not be open again until Tuesday. A sign on the other restaurant let me know they would not be open until Tuesday as well.
So I go back to my cabin and prepare my sad little dinner of … trail food ;-(