Acton

I set up camp at mile 411 last night. I wake up today to a bunch of birthday text messages. Perks of being 3 hours behind the time zone. It’s looking like 6.5 miles to the Mill Creek fire station where I’m getting a hitch into town.

Last night I got on Facebook and asked around if anyone could pick us up. I was told I would have NO cell service at the road and to organize a ride before hand. We need a ride into Acton to hit the post office and then back again. 45 minutes round trip.

It’s a beautiful sunrise and Seven was actually the first to wish me happy birthday. Even though he was 25 feet away he Garmin messaged me. A minute later Dallas and then Wolf stops by. Awesome way to start 36 off, with your buddies doing straight up hard stuff.

I step out of my tent and immediately I’m sore, I battled a shin splint all day yesterday that’s bothering me and I can’t stretch it enough. As I look at the view the pain goes away, just forget about it I tell my self. I check some email, nice Altra warranteed my Lone Peak 3s, after 220 miles they are destroyed. Nice win for my birthday. I’m going back to the low top 7s. I still think the 7s were the best Altra shoe ever made. I even ordered 2 pairs to put in stock to have shipped out as they wear away.

I leave camp at 7AM and start the walk to the fire station, it’s a lovely downhill morning and the trail is fast, initially I was worried about getting here before 10AM. I don’t want our ride to wait for us. But at our pace I say I think I will be fine.

As I get to the trail head I see signs that say “trail magic!” A gentleman Patrick said he just retired and wanted to give back to the trail. He hands me a Gatorade and starts passing out hot dogs. We chat with him for a while and get to know him. Exchange IG info and then say goodbye.

After that it’s a short walk to the Mill Creek fire station where I meet Scott to get into town. As much as I thank Scott for the ride and appreciate it. We drove too fast into town, I was almost car sick on the ride there.

I arrive at the post office at 11AM. Everything goes smooth, the lady behind the counter was super helpful and nice. I swap my backpack for a new Z Pack arc haul. I ordered it back in January and never got it, did the first 400 miles with my Osprey day bag. I also decided to ship home some clothes. My long underwear, gloves, extra socks, and ship my ice axe and microspikes north to Kennedy Meadows. I’ll have to mail my bear can there also.

The rest of the crew does the same with their snow gear. Seven gets a package of shorts and a sun hoodie, the kid now looks fly in his new clothes and blazingly white legs. He does get bad news that his new Enlightened Equipment puffy however did not make the delivery.

I reach out to our ride back and arrange a time, they say 1:30PM. We hit the store next door and grab some lunch. Wolf gives me half of their Italian sub because I didn’t want to eat before the drive back. I’m glad I did, for one that was an amazing sub, for two the ride back was much more tame.

Megan our ride back dropped us off where we started, we offer her some cash and force her to take it. She drove 35 minutes out of the way to help us out. Thank you so much! After that it’s now 12 miles of uphill to Messenger Flat Campground. I’d say these miles were uneventful, just hot, uphill and I spent most of us messing with the adjustments on my new bag. The one thing you get really comfortable in is after carrying a bag for so long it almost molds to your body shape. 

I leapfrog some hikers we saw the day before Sparks and Kind Heart. They’re heading to the same camp! Will see y’all there. As I hit mile 11 I’m gassed, it’s starting to get dark and I want to mess with my new gear before bed.

I pitch my tent in a forest of pine trees and listen to the wind howl. The moons nice and bright, it’s full in a few days. Everyone else arrives to camp and we sit down for my birthday dinner. I crush the usual ramen, pasta and rice.

Wolf breaks out a perfect pack of hostess cupcakes. how they carried it out without any damage to me was impressive. Sparks had birthday candles and even in the wind I had my birthday cake and ate it too. I sit there after dinner with some tears in my eyes. From people I barely know, to people who are becoming good friends the level of appreciation I have today is huge. The trail is reinstating my faith in humanity. As a Bostonian, I grew up thinking people sucked, can’t say my own observation changed any of that at home. But here people have been amazing.

As I lay in my tent tonight I text some friends back home. I get a text from Sum Mer who I met on Facebook who coordinated our rides today and she tells me she’s prepaid a fried ice cream in Agua Dulce at Terra Dulce for me tomorrow. Again wow, so appreciative, tomorrow is a 27 mile day to get there and I’m going to absolutely crush that ice cream. Lactose intolerant and all idgaf.

Overall- amazing birthday, simple, clean(except me and my clothes), I crushed miles, and spent it with people I truly care about. What more can I ask for? Life is fucking great.