Up and out of camp we went and headed with purpose to Kearsarge Pass. We wanted to get to the trailhead and get a ride quickly. Secret was having a hard time. We all were that day. I don’t think I was doing my best parenting. He was hitting me. It was too much. I was upset and needed time away from him for a bit to calm down.

The hike up the pass was pretty chill from camp. As we went up, we could see people up there relaxing and looking at the view. It’s a popular spot. It’s beautiful. That helped with our moods and I think we got over that hump.

Secret climbed a bit and we headed down as best we could.

We tried to make sure Secret was being friendly and would also help us chat up people on the way down so we could get a ride. He struggled with that a bit. He just wanted to go sometimes.

Overall we made decent time. We talked to a lot of day hikers and saw even more PCT hikers. Another couple of PCT hikers took our photos on a Polaroid and gave us the prints. Cool!

We got to the parking lot with no leads on a ride. It’s supposed to be easy, but we hit a dead spot in the day.

We asked one of the people we met at camp. They weren’t receptive to giving a ride and just ignored me. They also made some comments that I think were pointed to our struggles in the morning. Sometimes I hate how people on trail see us in both our best and worst times – and unless it’s a group we hike with often, they only see moments. Imagine if you had no privacy and someone only saw your worst moment of the year. It’s a very small part of our story and sometimes it makes me upset to be so exposed all the time.

Hopefully food and hotel will solve that issue.

After a while, we saw some other hikers snag a ride. Damn.

Then we got a bunch of cars driving in, and we got offered two rides in parallel. We went with the ride Party City secured (my ride was camping up there, had to drop stuff off and would have headed into town to help us but it would be wayyy out of their way).

We got to our hotel in Independence after getting a ride from the town’s historian. Got a free beer from the front office. Invited to pizza dinner. Ridiculous hospitality. It was awesome.

We ate plenty of tacos from the taco truck. Which was gluten free, and very hospitable.

Showers. Sleep.