Friday, May 03, 2013

I set up my tent in THAT Brewery’s beach volleyball court last night, my logic being ‘sand = comfortable’ and ‘there are no other stellar spots’. Unfortunately, in the middle of the night (at this point you may be asking yourself, ‘why does so much happen in the middle of the night in this journal? Can’t this person just go to bed like a normal human being?’ Yes, I ask myself that too) the crazy wind started up again and tore out all my tent stakes. This is getting old, wind. Without food or water I didn’t have many heavy items to line my tent with, and it was suffering. Finally I got out of the tent, lifted it up, rotated it so it was in an aerodynamic position, and got in again. Somehow I fell asleep immediately. The power of exhaustion.

The temperature was -4 degrees Celsius when I woke up. Packing up early because of the ‘in volleyball court’ aspect of this tale, I found myself with nothing to do at 6:00 AM. Luckily for me, the market in Pine has surprisingly long hours, so I decided to start my town chores early. The ATA website classifies the market as a good resupply location for a small town, but it was lacking many of the foods that I pack, like energy bars, oatmeal packets, Nutella… I may have overcompensated with too many snacks. The question of whether or not there can be such a thing as too much trail mix may have been answered today.

Running into Hardcore at the post office, I was glad to be able to give him a proper goodbye before he left Pine. He’s a friendly guy and I had the opportunity to speak to him for a few hours yesterday. He revealed that Link is actually named Lint (boooo) and Backpacker Guy is actually Backpack Guy. Oops. I got a lot wrong from that conversation with Backpack Guy, but moving on from my apparent lack of ability to hear, Hardcore didn’t know what a Kinder’s Surprise is. For Americans visiting Canada, you should try one (just don’t choke on the toy). And Saskatoon berry pie. And poutine of course. Anyway, acknowledging that this entry has gotten sidetracked…

Hardcore told me that four cowboys are coming up the trail with a group of horses, making a documentary about their journey from Mexico to Canada over a combination of trails. Furthermore, I received an email from John this afternoon mentioning that they’re all about my age and good looking (now why would that be relevant, John…?). Far be it for me to say that I DON’T want to meet four hot young cowboys, but sadly I came here to hike the AZT, not meet cowboys, so I’d rather they stay behind me for awhile. Horses = dung.