Miles hiked 0

Hollywood is the man, here he is sits telling me tales of his world travels

It’s pretty amazing to have a fellow hiker spend his day off acting as your personal tour guide and concierge in town.  When we woke Hollywood rushed out and got bacon and eggs to make us breakfast.  As he cooked for us we talked about the day and our game plan.  Being his day off he said he would take us to town.

We loaded up and hit the town in a well-executed fashion; the post office for my box, the gear store for fuel canisters and deet, the dispensary for some CBD salve, a taco shop and then back to the casa.  Hollywood was going back up the pass to look for hikers with his friend Kale who is also pct ’15.  Kale came by and said he would buy us dinner at the restaurant he worked out that night.  So Hollywood and he left but we had just a few hours to go get our food at the grocery store so Hollywood would be able to drive us up to Strawberry Hot Springs later.

Strawberry hot springs are one amazing stop and generally voted the #1 hot spring in CO.

We took the free bus to the city market, some guest of the resort were giving us some weird looks so I started to chat them up.  In true fashion, within minutes they were ready to adopt me, what can I say people like me.  We got our food and then I sat outside the city market and downed a pint of Ben and Jerrys like it was my job.  We headed back and then loaded up for some hot spring fun.

Hollywood’s dog rhino was a sweet chill companion

Now since I got into Colorado everyone had told us to go to Strawberry Hot Springs, and after the drive up we worked out and the springs were worthy of the hype.  Cool stone buildings, gentle paths to the pools and giant hot spring pools.  We soaked in the hot water and took turns going into the cold pool to reset.  A couple of hours and our aches and pains of walking through Colorado had gone away.  We all decided we were ready to go eat, so we drove down to Oneil’s and enjoyed some of the best in America let alone the CDT.

Lamb poutine is amazing food for the hungry hiker

Kale hooked us up with lamb poutine, fresh Caesar salads and the most amazing Reuben I have ever eaten.  The portions were huge and the ambiance was great.  A young guy played music as we ate and as we slipped into food comas and consumed a few Guinness it was time to call it a day and get some sleep.