Alarm went off at 0530, and I managed to get up around 6. The neighboring couple (Bett and Nick) were up and had already prepared coffee for me.
Helping others is rewarding in itself. But it was clear that I had to pay it forward, and tge message was to look after any motorcyclist in need in Norway. :-)
A long climb up from the highway, then quite a bit of today was spent walking through areas that burnt last year. In some places even the soil is burnt and there’s only ash, sand and gravel left. Dead, black skeletons of trees, uncanny silence as there are no birds or insects.
Hard going as it’s like walking in sand. And very dirty. My legs felt the long walk yesterday and weren’t too happy today. I found a stream and sat there icing them down for a while and that helped. I originally thought I should camp by the stream, but found energy for a couple more miles. Past another forest road a lady in car, rolls down her window and shouts “do you want a Gatorade”? I say, “yes sure” and climb the five or so meters from the trail to the road. Turns out she had only one left, and that was the one she already jad drunk half of. I politely declined. She was waiting for her friend who was picking morels. We have them at Holmen in the garden, so I showed her a picture of the morel on the path the other day.
Then when I set up camp, the first hiker of the day passes. Bechy or “Bugs”, and when I tell her about the mushroom pickers, she pulls out a big bag of morels she had found.
Mushroom’s are Mrs M’s thing, but guess I will try to find some to spice up tomorrow’s dinner.
The body is keeping up well. The ankle pain I have had for a year disappeared two days before the trip, and I have not felt even a twinge. I got a couple of blisters on the toes from the rainy days, and something on the side of the heel that hurt a bit for a while but seems now to be better. Lost a couple of toe nails of course, but hips, knees and ankles are just fine.
A report from a few days ago recommended people to turn around because there’s some snow between here and Etna summit. Where I will hitch a ride into Etna. “Bugs” had just done the whole thing in sandals so sounds doable! :-)
Still not 100% if this is what I want to be doing for the next five months. The inner “drive” that this is something I want isn’t there. Not like it was when I did Norway from end to end. Was thinking of perhaps taking a break and volunteer doing trail maintenance for the PCTA or perhaps do one of the great train journeys in the US. Just random ideas from the tent at this point. Burger and beer in Etna tomorrow!
