June 10, 2016

Rickets and I knew when we woke up that we would be making it in to Etna by the evening. At just over 30 miles away it would be our longest day on trail yet. We broke camp fast and hit the trail hard.

The morning was cloudy and chilly. The trail followed the best lines up and down the faces of the ridges and we were constantly moving from above the clouds to within the clouds.

We hit snow around 9:00am. It was steep, still very icy from the night, and the scariest stretch of snow we had hit yet. Fortunately we made it over it without incident and continued on the sprint to town.

The middle of the day consisted of a lot of ups and downs without much flat to be found. It was reminiscent of the Appalachian Trail in that respect. We were able to stay on pace though and kept pushing.

The afternoon was spectacular. We hit the Trinity range proper and were greeted by amazing red crags surrounding vibrantly green valleys with many snowmelt ponds. We cruised across the small patches of snow left in some parts and around the edge of a large bowl before turning away to head towards the town.

The last few miles were painful but we made it to the highway at 6:15pm - not bad timing at all. We had been counting on an easy hitch given that it was a highway and all. This was not the case. There were very few cars on the road and most were headed the opposite way. Finally a nice woman stopped for us and took us down into town to the Etna Brewery & Pub.

There was a jam band playing outside and Rickets and I grabbed a table to watch. Loopy joined us shortly for a drink having already eaten herself. The food and drink were good and we took our time with it all.

The band ended early at the request of the bar. Apparently it was too empty and they were closing up shop early. We began packing up to join Loopy at the $25/night hostel when a man approached us and invited us back to his house for the night. That's where the band was headed and we were welcome to set up on the lawn.

It was a party alright. The whole group there had all met while hitch hiking or bumming somewhere at some point. They were all in their late 20's or early 30's, all either had deadlocks or had just cut their dreadlocks, and all were very into living off the land and being able to provide for oneself. We got a ton of offers to be schooled in the edible plants the next day, or given a fishing pole for the alpine lakes, or sent off with some home canned goods.

Loopy and Rickets called it a night and set up on the living room floor. I had gotten pulled in by the various personalities and was caught up in conversation until the wee hours.

About 2:00am the guests began heading home and soon it was just the three of us and the two couples who actually lived in the house. It was not a good night for the couple upstairs and heated words were exchanged for the next few hours. These other couple tried to settle them down a few times but to no avail. Unsure of what to do in such a situation we all just tried to ignore and sleep through it, hoping they would resolve the issue or tire out and go to sleep. This sadly was not meant to be.