We were up early and CR and Nick followed us to our starting spot and then took our car up ahead 2 days for us. It was a huge favor and we were very glad that they were able to do it.
We were out in the sticks. Way out in the middle of nowhere. Exactly where I wanted to be. We’ve had plenty of beach in this trip and we’ll have plenty of city up after D.C. but I want to enjoy some rural back roads while we have the chance.
A few miles in to our walk, a car pulled up and they asked if we were the guys walking for opioids. Yeah, that’s us. They asked why we were on the back roads. I said so that we could talk to people like them. We stood in the middle of the road and took pictures and talked about the crisis. A woman and her teenage son. What a great opportunity. They saw our sharps box and knew from the news stories that we have been picking up needles on the side of the road. They asked if we saw any in their area. We hadn’t seen any today yet. It was cool that they knew about us and stopped to show some love. Very cool.
The rest of the day was just a montage of walking past farms with beautiful views. The occasional truck passing by but giving us plenty of space and a lift of the fingers while keeping the hand on the top of the steering wheel. A country wave lol.
I enjoyed the peace and quiet. We walked past a town called Aurora and headed towards the Aurora Ferry. There was about 9 miles of phospate mining operations that we walked by. It was pretty interesting to see all the big equipment and wide open skies as all of the trees had been cleared for miles. It was reminiscent of Kansas and Nevada in some aspects. I was reliving old memories from my last walk while making new memories on this one.
We made it to the ferry and met a very nice woman while we waited to load up. She talked to us for a while and gave a donation in the amount of her magic number, 11.
The ferry took about 30 minutes and we had already walked over 20 miles at this point. When we got to the other side, there was an area with picnic tables and grassy areas. We asked the staff if it was ok if we camped out for the night. They had no problem with it and showed us where to set up.
We ate dinner cooked in our camp stoves and set up our tents. As the sun was setting we noticed some really ominous clouds. We hunkered down and prepared for heavy showers but only got a light one. Our gear held up well and we stayed dry.
Off to bed! Should be a good night’s sleep.
Such a beautiful place, Love the pictures!