Enjoying a few creature comforts...

Day 219
10-12-2006
Started: Fish Lake National Forest, UT
Finished: Milford, UT
Today's Miles: 35.3
Total Miles: 3284.5

Monster Miles! Watch out though, monsters bite. Our feet, and legs, and backs and shoulders are all feeling a bit sore tonight. Today we hiked our biggest mile day of the Journey so far, over thirty five miles! We had a discussion laying in our tent last night that ended with the conclusion that it was time for a shower and a laundromat. It really wasn't a discussion that are mouths needed to have, our noses could have easily come up with the same conclusion, and probably much faster. The discussion didn't take too long actually, it was more of a question with an obvious answer then a discussion. When you share the small space that we do and one of you asks, "do you smell me as bad as I smell you?", it's time for a shower and laundromat. The question led to a discussion about where we should search out the necessary facilities. We knew we were about eleven miles from the town of Beaver, but we didn't want to do that short of a day so we didn't feel like that was an option. After Beaver we would have to go up over the Mineral Mountains and that meant the next town we would hit would be Milford. Milford was over thirty five miles away so at first that didn't seem like an option either. Funny how the thought of a warm room, soft bed, hot shower and clean clothes will motivate a smelly hiker. Randy made Sheri a deal that if she could make it to Milford that we would get a Motel room for the night, sleep in late and do a short mile day the next day to let our bodies recover. Sheri was in! We set our watch alarm for 5:30 a.m. and hiked the first few chilly miles in the dark wearing headlamps to guide us. As the sun came up we hiked past the "leaving Fish Lake National Forest" sign and we started to feel the air warming up by the time we reached Beaver. Beaver is one of Utah's historical towns and it has more than two hundred historical buildings dating from 1865 to 1882 to prove it. The town was originally a Mormon agricultural community, not unlike a lot of Utah towns, but years later a large population of non-Mormon metal pioneers moved into the town causing a great deal of tension between the two groups. Tensions became so bad that the U.S. Army built Fort Cameron in Beaver to maintain order. The fort was in operation until 1882. We decided we would stop in for a morning coffee for Sheri and get some breakfast while we were at it, so we found a small diner in town. It was nice to have just over eleven miles behind us by just after 9:00 o'clock in the morning, but we didn't get too excited about it because we knew we still had more that twenty four miles to go if we were going to make it to Milford. The hike to get to Milford was quite challenging. We had to go up and over the Mineral Mountains at Soldier Pass. The Pass was at an elevation of over 7,400 feet, in Beaver we were starting at 5,800 feet and when we reached Milford we were back below 5,000 feet. So, needless to say it was going to be an up and down kind of day. At least the hiking was beautiful. We had great views from both sides of Soldier Pass and once we were on the west side we could see the town of Milford sitting like an island out in the middle of the Escalante Desert. It seemed like we could reach out and grab the consolidated little town, so it gave us the extra motivation we needed for our late day push. The only problem was that looks can be deceiving. The vast space of the desert fooled us into thinking we were much closer then we actually were. It seemed like the more we hiked the farther away the town was getting. By the time we reached the edge of town we were both ready to fall over. We talked to some locals who pointed us in the direction of the most inexpensive lodging in town. There were only two lodging choices so we took the closest option which worked out great because it was close to the laundromat and the library, two definite stops while we are in town. Once we had a room for the night it was showers and then immediately horizontal. The big mile day was making itself known! Randy's feet were feeling it and Sheri's shins had a serious throb pulsing through them, but we smell good, and tomorrow our clothes will too! Tonight we are enjoying the soft bed under our hips, the warm blankets over us and the real pillow to lay our heads on. A day of monster miles, and all for the amazing feeling of what a few creature comforts can do for you. We're just not sure which is more amazing, what a few creature comforts will do for us, or what we will do for a few creature comforts!

Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
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