Day 10:  Monday, September 28^th

Blue Mesa Reservoir to Gunnison

 

Dedicated To:

Lin Sutton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

Amber Rose Galloway, Carlsbad, CA

Heather Lakmann, Redding, CA

Beth Bringle, Redding, CA

 

It’s was the start of new work week and HWY 50 was busy as people buzzed by to work. We started around 8am from last night’s stopping point (a mile or so from Blue Mesa Reservoir). A fairly uneventful day but I really felt great. About 3 miles in we got off the highway and onto a frontage road that paralleled it. Marcus jumped on his bike to join me, of course with a camera in my face, and we chatted it up as we approached Gunnison. It’s amazing how much faster the time goes when you have someone to talk to.

About 7 miles into the run I was getting pretty hungry so stopped for a rest on the curb and grabbed my homemade True Nature Kitchen baby food pouch out of my bag. I cracked the lid open with excitement to get some nutrition in me. The first swallow tasted a bit different than usual, but had just told Marcus how good they were, so offered him a taste. He said, “It’s kinda spicy”. I said, “Well yeah, it has black pepper in it”. Then I proceeded to take another gulp and that time couldn’t handle it and spit it out in the gutter. It literally gagged me. Vaughn saw my dramatic spitting and came out of the truck laughing and to kindly take the pouch from me. I said, “It’s rancid, it’s gotta be rancid.” With the hunger immediately gone from that bad taste, we got back to running. Turns out, my essential oil and Epsom salt liquid soap spilled all over the kitchen in Big Blue and infused EVERYTHING around it. So, not rancid, but my insides are bubbly clean now!

As we continued through town, it was a surprisingly great to see a bit of civilization. I am very much a country girl and would love to spend all of my time in the woods, but after days of loneliness, turns out seeing a stop light and a Safeway makes you smile.   The plan that day was to only go to the end of town, but again I was feeling decent and wanted to get a head start on the next day… so when Tory said “28 miles to Crested Butte” (the destination for the next day)… I kept chugging along. My feet were swelling and the numbness was wearing off. Each step was painful, but somehow I just kept going saying “one more mile” to my crew each time I saw them. Finally at 14 miles into the day, I asked Tory if she would walk the last mile to make it a solid 15 miles (6 miles into the next day)!

As Tory and I were walking that last mile, I had my shoes in hand to let my toes get some relief. We’re just chatting up a storm and all of a sudden we see a bus sized motorcoach in the large shoulder coming at us at about 55mph. They pulled to the shoulder (with us in plain view) to let other cars pass them, but weren’t slowing down. Tory bailed off into the stickers on the side of the road, but me in socks (and half way delirious with hunger and fatigued) didn’t quite comprehend what was happening. I got out of the way, but not without scaring the dickens out of Marcus (who was right behind us).

Surviving another potentially life-threatening event on the road, we crossed the highway, jumped in the rigs and headed back to our hotel that was donated for the night. When we got to the hotel my pinky toe was really in pain… A LOT of pain. Enough pain that we were contemplating going to visit a physical therapists office for advice. But with the suggestions of friends, Tory’s amazing touch, flushing with the MarcPro and hours of elevation… my toe had enough relief to take the pups to a park and get them some much needed play time. We played ball until dusk, headed back to the hotel and crashed with hopes that my toes would hold through to start the day tomorrow.

Lesson Learned:

• Probably not a good idea to walk on the side of a highway in socks