July 26th, 2022 by Jon
Today we woke to the sound of buzzing insects. They were trying their hardest to break into our tent, or perhaps they were just stuck under the rain fly and couldn’t get out. Today is town day! We’re excited to get into Etna for a little R&R. But first, we have to do a little less than 9 miles to get into town.
The hike began through some burned forest. We walked on the side of a mountain and went over about 30 different blowdowns as we slowly made our way over the dead and fallen trees before continuing on. After about a mile a half I managed to slip on a rock when going over one such tree and cut my hand pretty badly on a log. We stopped to clean it up, and then I hiked without using my trekking poles for the rest of the day. We climbed to the bottom of the hill and crossed a saddle before hiking up to get on the ridge of the next mountain. We would stay on that ridge for a while and had great views of the surrounding valleys before dropping down into a basin and passing by the lake that we were tentatively planning to hike to last night before stopping early.
We continued hiking and began one last big climb up a steep ridge, and once on the other side, had a pretty gentle descent. We passed by many lakes and walked through unburnt forest and along rocky ledges. When we got down to the bottom of the hill, we came out to a gravel trailhead next to a paved road that connected two extremely small towns. Thankfully, a kind older couple was just finishing packing up the horses that they had taken out for a ride, and they offered us a ride into town! We didn’t even have to put out our thumb! We drove down a long, winding road and got dropped off on Main Street, which is only about a block long. We thanked them for the ride and went to find our friends, who were about 20 minutes ahead of us.
We found Biscuit and Missile hanging out at the coffee shop, having a snack, and joined them for a bit of food around 10:30. We saw lots of hikers there and saw a few friends that we enjoyed catching up with before heading over to the gear shop. We picked up a few energy bars, electrolyte tabs, backpacking meals, and fuel for our stove before getting a message from our Airbnb host saying the unit was ready! Delighted, we walked over to the unit and saw the host, who said hello and welcomed us to Etna. We walked two blocks to get to our Airbnb and found a wonderfully air-conditioned little cottage and enjoyed sitting there for a while doing a few errands. We showered, did laundry, and cleaned out our food bags. I need a new Talenti Gelato jar for cooking oatmeal and drinking coffee out of.
After a few hours, we grabbed some milkshakes and burgers from a spot in town and brought them back to the house to eat while watching TV. After that, Singsong and I called our families and then went out to do our resupply and exchanged some socks with holes in them for a new pair at the gear shop. We didn’t quite have time to go to the post office to ship some food ahead, so we plan to do it tomorrow morning. After going home and sorting our food, we chilled at the house before Missile and Biscuit went to meet Bouge at the brewery. She hitched in a little early to give her feet some rest. She’s been having some foot pain and is trying to give them some extra time to heal.
Singsong and I went to the brewery a little later because it was the only place in town open tonight, and we wanted to have a date night with just the two of us. We said hi to our friends, grabbed a small table, had dinner and beers, and talked for a while. We headed back to the house afterward and crashed early. It’s been a long, hot section, and we’re very glad to have an easy day in town. Tomorrow we plan to get back out for a half day of hiking after some morning chores and breakfast from the bakery.
