3 Highlights:
1. Vistas over peaks, trees, and lakes
2. Hitchhike in a Jeep Wrangler
3. Tenting downtown Buena Vista
Daily Summary:
• Distance hiked: 20 km (6 km south, then 14 back north)
• Starting point: Stream
• Ending point: Buena Vista
• Weather conditions: Sunny
Daily Reflections (challenges, insights, musings):
Woke up, and guess what? It was freezing. Again. Like, can we just get one morning where my toes don’t feel like they’re auditioning to be icicles in some Disney movie? Anyway, we packed up and started slowly hiking up this beautiful mountain, you know, the kind that makes you think you should be filming a motivational montage. But let me tell you—beautiful views or not, slow is the operative word here. We had lunch on top, taking in the glorious, endless vistas of more peaks and more trees. They were incredible, but my legs were already thinking, “Uh, buddy, we’ve got how many kilometers left?”
Then the Airbnb drama hit. Yep, that Airbnb hosting blunder blew up like the Hindenburg, and poor Wild Flower was done. She hit her mountain-limit—like a video game character reaching their last life. She was practically screaming “No more mountains, no more altitude, no more suffering!” And honestly, I can’t blame her. I mean, who thought it was a good idea to drop a sea-level dweller right into the Hunger Games of altitude?
We decided to backtrack—yep, 14 glorious kilometers back down to the trailhead. All in all, we did a solid 20 km, but it wasn’t exactly in the direction we’d planned. Then came the hitchhiking. Enter Corey. Picture a guy who looks like he could star in a “lumberjack calendar” but drives a Jeep Wrangler. His dog was in the back, probably living its best life, and before we knew it, Wild Flower was snoozing in the passenger seat like a toddler on a road trip. Jeep Wrangler though—Wild Flower’s dream car. At least that was a win. Corey, bless him, was a kind soul, telling us about how his family has lived here for over 100 years. No big deal—just your friendly neighborhood mountain man.
Once in Buena Vista, we did what any normal, exhausted hikers would do: surf the internet and stuff our faces with Mexican food. Then, in true “we’re really winging this” fashion, Wild Flower asked the folks at the Mexican joint if we could sleep on their property. And guess what? They were totally cool with it. Sort off. They were cool with us sleeping next to them. They were sure it would be fine as the owner’s are rarely around…so now we’re camping downtown, next to a busy restaurant and infront of main street and cars that seem to have questionable exhaust systems.
Wish us luck—tomorrow’s a new day.
