May 24, 2021
Miles: 23.8
Steps: 50,034
Kind of slept in this morning, all the way until 7am. I tried to sleep in later as I had to stay until at least 8am when the post office opened.
Got to the post office as soon as they opened so I could get on trail as soon as I could before it got too hot. When I picked up my box it was a lot heavier than I remembered.
I get back to the Toaster House to open it and figure out if I needed everything as I still had food left from coming into Pie Town. Took me about 30 minutes to pack up everything. So at this point I was ready to leave only I still needed to order my new water filter to have it when I get to Grants. It took a lot longer than it should have as getting the right mailing address was not easy.
Finally around 9:45am I got back on trail which was more road walking.
I knew I had at least 30 miles of road walking. The road is mainly dirt but at times was gravel or sandy. This was a much more traveled road as I had several car pass me by. I believe the road will take you all the way to Grants. I can road walk all the way to Grants if I want.
I made it to TLC Ranch around 2:40pm. Diesel was waiting there at the gate of the ranch inside in old building that had several jugs of cold water. I only had planned to stay for an hour, hour and a half max. I really just needed the water. I had heard the owners feed the hikers but wasn’t sure at this time of day. Also we weren’t sure if we were allowed near the house as that’s what signs said so we waited for someone from the house to come down and get us, not sure when they knows when hikers arrive as you can’t see the house from the road.
After about 5 minutes someone showed up and asked if we wanted food. We said yes and followed up to the house where they had a dinner table set up outside under some trees. They brought out baked potatoes with lots of topping and cake balls for dessert. They said they were having grilled burgers for dinner today. Once I heard that I knew I was staying. I had already done 16 miles and could do some miles after dinner.
So Diesel and I ate and talked with one of the person that lives at the ranch. She has had a rough life but doing better.
Slowly as the day went on more and more hikers started to show up, pretty much everyone I had hung out with at the Toaster House. By dinner time there were 8 of us. Then dinner was severed and we all had our fill. Then the owners came out with dessert and stayed to talk. Very friendly people and love to help out the hikers.
Right as it was getting dark everyone made their way back to the road to set up camp. I was unsure if I wanted to move on but then felt like night hiking. Said goodbye to everyone and hiked about 7.5 miles down the gravel road. Found a nice little spot just north of a water tank. I was able to get to bed before midnight.
