Salida

This was a particularly short section of trail - only 6 more miles into Salida! The hike in was uneventful, and we got to highway 50 in pretty good time. Our first hitch was fast, but he wasn't going all the way into town, and dropped us off still about 5 mile outside of town. The second hitch was more of a problem. We ended up walking about 2 of the 5 miles, and had even given up on sticking our thumbs out, when a car stopped. Someone who worked in the Mt. Princeton Resort store, who we had actually met a couple of days earlier gave us a ride the rest of the way into town! He dropped us off at the post office, so we could pick up our resupply, and we went off to find the thing that we'd really been missing on the cold, rainy trail - COFFEE. We found it at the Simmering Cup Coffee shop, and then went off to find a place to stay.

As we were wandering around downtown Salida, I saw a big sign on the Steamplant event center that read "Welcome Governor Bill Ritter." No sooner had I read the sign aloud to Brent then an Escalade pulled up, and Governor Ritter got out! We were going to go up and talk to him, mention that we were CT hikers, and that it was great, and he should keep up the funding, but instead he started talking to a bunch of skaters who were hanging around. There was a heightened police presence around the Governor, and soon we started to feel a little self conscious and dirty, so we left without talking to the big man.

Of course, it being the trip that it's been, it soon started to rain - heavily. We ended up staying at a Simple Lodge (website here), which is more of a hostel than a lodge. But it's a great place, Jon let us check in early, so we had nearly the whole afternoon to clean up, sit around, blog, etc. It's also a very hiker-friendly place, so before long, we met Eric, who is also hiking the CT. He works at REI, so he's a really well geared hiker. He started on the 14th, and has been a day or so behind us for a while, so he's going really fast!

In the evening we wandered around downtown Salida some more. It's a much art-ier town than I expected; there are galleries and sculptures everywhere (including my favorite, a bronze cow on the roof of the building across from our hostel). They're prepping for this weekend's art-themed festival, the Salida Art Walk. Brent picked up a growler of beer from a local brewery (Amica's, website here), and a MONSTROUS pepperoni pizza, and we ate until we were ill. It was awesome!

kim