Day 27 – 9/20/19

31.2 miles / 562.9 total

This western side of the ODT is pretty cushy, with all the cell service and frequent town stops. Back in Lakeview, I called ahead and booked myself a room in Paisley for tonight, which after yesterday’s late start, meant I had to do 31 miles today. I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to camp anywhere close to town, and let’s be real, I’m a sucker for motels.

The days are getting ever shorter, and with the cloud cover, it wasn’t light enough to hike without headlamp until about 6:15am, so that’s when I started.

It remained cold and misty all morning and I wore my new thermal top and rain jacket over my usual hiking shirt.

There was a fair bit of gain as the trail wound through the mountains, up and down of bunch of little peaks including Morgan Butte, which has a lookout and pit toilet on top. There were also stretches of horrible mud that stuck in big clumps on my shoes that I can’t even blame on the cows. This was exhausting.

I finally got out of the damp mist and dripping when I dropped low enough in elevation to get below the clouds.

11 hours later I was in town, with 45 minutes to spare before the store closed. I wanted to resupply tonight so I could have the option to leave early tomorrow morning before it opens. But going in hungry and tired was probably a bad move. I loaded up on junk food, though in my defense there wasn’t much in the way of healthier options anyway.

I got dinner at the restaurant in town, which was super busy and noisy and I had to wait a long time and by the time it was done I wished I’d just eaten a frozen burrito in my room. I feel totally wrecked and in need of a good rest.