As soon as I woke up, it became clear that my mom was not going to be able to continue. She looked pale and weak.
We both packed up and headed back to the last paved road. I tried calling trail angels to arrange a ride back to Ashland but no luck. Eventually, my mom started feeling so bad I had to call 911. She looked close to collapsing.
After an hour the ambulance arrived to our great relief. They took my mom to the hospital in Ashland. At that point I was really worried something was seriously wrong. I’d never seen my mom so exhausted and plain empty. I wondered if I did right not going with her, even though there would have been little I could do. I wanted to show her what it was like to be out here and instead she had a hellish 2 days.
Soon after I called her in the hospital: it was covid. In a way awful, but I was also really glad the doctors had found the cause. She was quickly discharged from the hospital and had to quarantine in a hotel until Sunday. I’d regularly check in on her.
For now, I could do nothing, so I set my sights on catching the others, who were now far ahead. By lunch I found Merlin and Marble and explained the situation to them.
After they left, Disaster, now clean-shaven, walked by. He’d been hiking with Jesse’s group, but was now back here and I couldn’t be happier. He told me an interesting story about Sappy, one of the resident lunatics of the Budpharm. He’d been working at Kennedy Meadows South for a while, enjoying copious amounts of drugs while doing so. As he is wont to do, he made meowing sounds at the guests, weirding them out.
At some point, it got so bad he started throwing hexes at people from the bar. He had to be knocked down to be contained and was subsequently shipped back to the Budpharm. Grumpy Bear’s staff shortage must have been really really bad to hire him in the first place but to then also keep him on for this long. Thus ends Sappy’s pct story. A tale that has been spun eight times already, without Sappy ever finishing once.
Big Oil dropped in too, this time with poles again, and shortly after, I set off again. My mind was empty for most of the day. I enjoyed the forest and the sunlight, sending my mom a message every now and then. I kept walking and walking, without breaks. The others had gone to the Lake of the Woods resort to relax a bit, giving me time to gain ground. Just before the road where they hitched I found a sign saying ‘MAGIC AHEAD’. Could it be? I ran and indeed. The whole group was sitting in chairs, next to coolers of drinks and snacks. Just what I needed! Fitz gave me a big hug after I’d told the story of that morning. When I sat down I realized how much I needed that.
I asked the host what his name was.
‘Coolwaters’, he said ,’and you’re Catch Up.’
How did he know that? No one had mentioned my name. I asked him a while later.
‘You’re infamous’, he said with a smile. Ok, now I didn’t want to know. Any possible explanation could only be disappointing compared to the thousand possibilities I could imagine.
Spice, Mouse, Stinger, Pinch and Twinkle Toes arrived after some time. They had hiked 7 miles, skipped 11 and spent most of the day at the resort, in a boat on the lake. Pinch was clearly learning them his bad habits.
We hiked out eventually, doing 6 more miles. I was tired from today.