Patagonia!

After I woke up and headed out of the inn, I walked across the street to find some breakfast, the only spot listed for breaky, but it was closed. Luckily, I passed a sign informing me the ice cream shop has breakfast burritos. Makes sense.

I’ll be honest, part of the joys of Thru hiking are small town local food. I’m particularly smitten by breakfast sannies and burrito’s and love getting the local flare.

As I ordered, the old familiar tune of “red or green” left the lips of the cook. It took me a second to process as all the memories of my time in arizona and New Mexico and recall all the red, green and Christmas orders I’ve put through in my miles of trekking.

For those unfamiliar, chiles are on everything. It’s kinda like a salsa, one version with green chilies, and the other with red. Or if you’d like, get it Christmas (both! I swear, they order it like that).

Anyhow, the burrito was delicious. Hash browns and fresh bacon inside. Truly a delight. Sadly, I only made it halfway through. Luckily, no upheaval, but I didn’t want to push myself and the belly was starting to grumble. So I decided to give it some time and hike on.

13 miles from town to town, all on the road. Made it super quick. Almost back to thru hiking speed (about 4 mph on flat road). I felt relatively good and healthy throughout. Even got a couple moments where the mind was beginning to sing the hiking tunes of yesteryear.

Along the way, Ken (the fella who dropped me off) rolled by and stopped off to check on me and offer a ride into town. While I was gracious for the offer, I decided to continue walking onwards. The CDT taught me the journey may not always be what you expect. There are so many alternate routes and “find your own adventure” on the CDT that you quickly learn your how to make the best of any situation. I find (mostly on the AT) that some people feel every step should be on the identified trail, but some of my fondest memories and adventures have been on side journeys and ventures off trail. So I walk on, even if the path isn’t what was defined on the map.

But back to it; it seems things would ebb and flow. Waves of nausea would come up and fortunately subside. I avoided my bars, the dense calorie heavy foods that typically are only enjoyed while starving. With the miles melting by, and only a couple small 5-10 min breaks, I pushed through to Patagonia around 1p and walked over to the familiar cafe Andy and I went to 6 years ago. Still looks the same. Had a BLT — figured breads always good, bacon did me well, and fresh greens can never be bad. Also got some avo in there for some extra sustenance.

It was funny though, as my belly started to subside from aching, it just allowed room for the ‘normal’ aches and pains to creep in. Pounding pavement amplifies those aches and pains, and as I decided what I wanted to do with the rest of the day, the lethargy sank in. While I kept everything down, the discomfort was still there. But nutrients remain!

I was scheduled to get into town today anyway, so I decided not to push forward and keep the rest up in hopes to knock whatever I’ve got out.

Might rework my schedule a bit and pop into an earlier town that I hadn’t scheduled. I had planned to do a 7 day stretch to a post office that’s on trail and avoid wasting time off trail, but depending on how I’m feeling I might just try to take it a bit easier and keep my mileage between 17-20 instead 21-24. At least until I’m feeling better.

So here I rest. Reveling in the familiar pain of stiff joints and sore legs. That’s a feeling I can cope with. The stomach lameness, not so much.

So my limping continues (metaphorically, I’m not limping in reality — fear not). I do recall I’ve got a really gnarly climb in 4-5 days. So I’m really hoping all is better by then. While I’m hopeful that my stomach is starting to feel better, the lack of real exertion today makes me consider that my belly is exacerbated by the harder inclines where my body needs to focus on keeping me going. I might end the day tomorrow with a climb, so I guess that’ll be the tester!

With positive spirits and the will to push forward, only the future holds what will be reality. So time will tell!