Tag 122: Having the room to myself was really nice. I sleep in and have a very relaxed morning. For breakfast, I go to the pizzeria next door, the only place around here that serves breakfast. I check out at 10:30 and decide to hitchhike to the trail and see how it goes, even though I had planned to take a Nero. This time, I get a ride within 10 minutes. When I arrive at the trailhead, I see Warrior standing on the road, walking back to the parking lot. I go over to her for a moment. She's feeling better now. We are approached by a few people who are waiting for other hikers and they give us an apple and cola. Then I say goodbye because I'm going back to the trail. Warrior and Hasbeen, who was supposed to be here, are meeting Hasbeen's father here, who wants to take them to town for resupply and then back to the trail. I walk along the trail at a leisurely pace, without worrying about how far I'm going. After a while, I pass the 2300 mile marker. I won't see many more of those.
A little later, I see a little boy sitting on a tree stump by the side of the trail. He has a plush Glumanda with him and since I haven't passed anyone in a long time and don't hear anyone, I ask him if everything is okay. He says they wanted to camp nearby, but there were too many mosquitoes. I tell him how annoying I find the mosquitoes too and ask where his parents are. He says they'll be here soon. So I keep walking and wait to meet the parents. After a while, I come to a trail junction. Here, another boy is sitting, obviously the brother of the first one, and next to him is an adult's backpack. This time, the boy approaches me and he also complains about how annoying the mosquitoes are. I confirm that and ask about the parents. They are further back, but he is with his aunt. I ask him if that was his brother I met earlier. Suddenly, he gets excited and asks me if I saw him. I tell him that I assume so and that he is sitting a little way down the trail on a tree stump. The boy wants to know if he had his Glumanda with him. When I confirm, he jumps up, runs down the trail towards the lake, and shouts, 'I know where he is'. I decide to follow him and talk to an adult. Shortly afterwards, a woman comes towards us, presumably the aunt. I explain to her where I saw the boy and shortly afterwards the father of the children joins us. Apparently, the aunt couldn't keep up with the boys. So she told one of them to wait at the intersection, left her backpack there, and went to the lake to see if the other one had gone in that direction. I tell her that the first boy didn't seem particularly worried and she just says that he never is. After that, the three of them walk down the trail I came from, while I continue on the trail in the other direction. From a distance, I hear them calling for the boy, whose name I don't understand, to wait. I think they have found the lost son again, but all in all, it was a situation I don't want to experience again. Actually, I had already planned to go back to the boy after a maximum of ten minutes if I hadn't met anyone. Luckily, everything turned out fine, otherwise I wouldn't have been sure what to do. The rest of the day is uneventful. It goes through the forest. My right leg is surprisingly fine again, but at 5:30 I decide to set up my tent because I had originally planned to do a Zero or at least a Nero and don't want to strain my leg again right away. In the tent, I realize that I actually hiked 16 miles, so the Nero didn't happen either. Nevertheless, I am very satisfied with how today went. It was very pleasant to just walk without a goal in mind and see how fast I am. Unfortunately, I won't be able to afford this luxury too often in order to stick to my schedule. It's not strict, but it does exist. So I plan to hike at least 25 miles per day for tomorrow, or generally the next few days.
