I got to sleep in today. I still woke up at like 6:30 AM, but that’s sleeping in compared to my normal day. Todays plan was to make it to a brewery right as they opened at noon. With 15 miles of hiking, that meant leaving around 7:30.
We woke up to this nice note from the fire fighter who we let share our campsite. He was a really nice guy and I’m glad there’s people like him out there helping keep the forest open for us hikers.
On the road walk into town (because of course it was a road walk) we saw what may have been a wild horse.
It’s unusual to see an animal that’s not a cow so it was exciting.
On the walk in I saw someone from Pie Town; an older guy named Whistle Tooth and we hiked along the road for awhile. He was excited to hike a bit faster than normal and I was happy to have some company on the long boring road. Eventually we made it to the brewery that’s right on the old Route 66.
It was a great stop for lunch and some drinks. We convinced a bunch of other hikers that were in town to come meet us and the owners of the brewery loved it. After that it was time to go find somewhere to sleep.
The town of Grants has seen better days. There are lots of dilapidated motels and abandoned buildings. There also a hostel that is run pretty much on the honor system. We showed up after sending a random PayPal and made our own beds.
Then it was time for karaoke night. The local pizza place was packed with people. There was clearly some regulars and we did our best to join in. About halfway through the night, the owners of one of the restaurants in Pie Town showed up and they were excited to see hikers again.
Tomorrow we have a bit of a rest day (we’re gonna go golfing) then we head to Albuquerque for some supplies and then head to Colorado to take on the rest of the trail.