We spotted our first bear during the last two days. Read the last two posts to get the full story.
8-12-06
Start: Jct. Land's End Rd. & Reeder Mesa Rd., CO
Destination: Grand Junction, CO
Elevation: 4,564 ft.
Miles: 21.3
Weather: Really, really hot!
We ate our cereal with water as it rained on us this morning. But by the time we were ready to pack up, the rain had stopped. While we were walking off of Reeder Mesa, we could see rain showers in every direction around us. We thought for sure we were going to be rained on, but it never did. It just got hot and humid.
We stopped in Whitewater at the Post Office to send some mail and make some phone calls - we finally had cell service. Mom was dreaming up an omelet, hashbrowns, and toast until that dream was crushed when we found there was nothing but the PO and a motel and some roadside fruit stands down Hwy. 50. So after almost 2 hours at the PO (our phone mailbox was full), we trucked on.
We came to a couple of roads that may have been our turn, but they led us toward the Landfill, and we weren't feeling too right about hiking around the busy bulldozers and birds, so we kept going. The next road was Hwy 50, and we took that until we hit our next waypoint that we were sure about. The very cool thing about this route was we were able to get lunch at one of the farmer's markets along the highway. We each had 2 fresh Palisade peaches and some plums, along with a cup of coffee. Then we were on our way.
It got so hot today. We drank a lot of water, so we did pretty well staying hydrated. Then as we walked down a residential street, there was a yard with sprinklers spraying into the middle of the sidewalk - aha! Just for hot hikers with backpacks on! We stood in the wet spot on the sidewalk for a moment, and then the water came around and hit mom and I both right in the face. It felt heavenly. We probably got stared and giggled at, but we really didn't mind being entertainment for passersby. It really cooled us off!
We got into Grand Junction, and our hostess, whom we met at the AA&MDSIF Conference in Nashville, picked us up. She lives here in GJ, so she's being a wonderful trail angel. We had a little confusion meeting up, but we found each other. Claudia then brought us to Texas Roadhouse for steak with some of her closest friends. It was a lot of fun, and those steaks tasted great!
Claudia lost her husband to MDS after it quickly turned into Leukemia. Apparently that happens about 20% of the time with MDS patients. The disease took him very quickly. So Claudia, mom and I have been sharing stories about bone marrow disease, inspirations, and angels. We'll be staying with Claudia for a few days, so we'll get to know her, and her husband Ken, much better.
Claudia has even gone the extra mile (pun?) and decided to really go on an adventure with us. She has offered to help us drop water along the Kokopelli Trail on Monday. This will be such a HUGE help to us, and we are very thankful for that. I think it will really be fun. Claudia is a great, happy, fun person to be around, so we're really excited.
Tomorrow is Sunday and will be another full hiking day for us, so I will go now and get some sleep. We might have a couple of media interviews, too, so that'll be cool. It's been a while, since we've been in the middle of mountains. We're up for it! Let's just hope for a nice day.
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