vacation is over

Day 80 ~ miles 1289.5 - 1296.4

We woke up early at the festival, but had no problem going back to sleep for a couple of hours after a run to the port-o-john.  We eventually packed up our stuff to find that we had inadvertently set our tent up on a pile of puke in the dark last night. Luckily, the Tyvek ground cloth was the only thing that touched it.  A few swipes of a sanitizing wipe had it back as good as new. The smell that followed the unearthing required an immediate evacuation of the area.

We said our goodbyes to Gregg and the others that we met at the campsite. We left out of the festival grounds with a vague recollection of how to get back to downtown Quincy.  We got directions from a guy hitching up his camper on the side of the road, and we were off. We walked the whole way in because we thought it wasn't worth trying to hitch. The grocery store came into view after about a mile of walking.  After picking up a few odds and ends, we started our search for "the Mexican restaraunt on Main Street". We walked down and back in the blazing heat, but no Mexican in sight. After asking a local on the sidewalk, we discovered that the restaurant was in the shopping center with the grocery store. It was too far and too hot to go back. We had to settle for Subway because it was right there and conveniently on the road we had to get a ride back to the trail on.

Since there were a lot of people leaving the festival and heading back to the Bay area on Highway 70, we figured it would be no problem getting picked up. We were mistaken. There were lots of people leaving, but no one stopping. One nice woman offered us a ride, but was unfortunately taking an exit before reaching Belden. Then, out of the blue, Celeste, who gave us a ride to the festival yesterday, pulled into the gas station to pick us up! She and her friends just so happened to be going back up to Belden and hanging out at the river. It was perfect, and we got to catch up on everyone's good time at the show last night.

The beach and the river were calling our name once we got back to the trail and we succumed to its draw. It was the hottest part of the day, and the high was 104 . After swimming and hanging out for a while, two more people that we had met at the festival showed up at the river.  We bought an awesome t-shirt from last night.  They print them with hand carved linoleum plates that they hand paint each time. They do a lot of work for Lagunitas which is one of our favorite breweries. It felt strange but awesome to know several non-hikers hanging out this afternoon.

We were finally able to get our packs on at about five and start trudging up the hill. The climb was 12 miles and 4500 feet. It didn't take us long in the blazing heat to realize that we weren't making it to the top. There was a campsite 7 miles in, so we stopped there. The mosquitoes were thick and relentless. Our chores were done while under attack, and dinner was eaten in the safety of the tent.

-Moonshine