SUMMARY:  We walked for over 2 hours this morning—6:00-8:30am– to reach Grand Lake. We were tired and famished—wow, no problem! There is a restaurant called ‘The Fat Cat’ with an all-u-can-eat breakfast buffet. Well-fed, we headed for Shadowcliff Hostel to get our box and a place to stay.

Shadowcliff is beyond awesome, but for tonight they had only 2 spots left—in the men’s dorm. OK for Bill, but not for me. So we sadly left and made like Mary & Joseph looking for somewhere to stay. Every place was either full or way beyond our price range. Finally the ‘cheapest’ motel offered to let us camp out back by the dumpster. OK! We went for it.

It rained off and on all day. We were able to take showers, but not wash clothes. All we really wanted to do was lie down and rest, and we did.

DETAILS:   It rained off and on last night, but we were snug in our tent out among the weeds in the boat yard.  But this morning–ugh!  We had lots of condensation to deal with.  Before we headed down the road, we left a thank you note and some $$ at the trailer park manager’s house.  It was 6:00 am when we started walking, and I was thinking “Breakfast!”  But though there were many houses, marinas and campgrounds along the road as it followed the lake shore, there was not a single place where we could even stop and get coffee.  Sigh.  We were absolutely famished.  But the views of Grand Lake were great!  Wow, that is a pretty lake!

Finally we reached the turnoff that went to the town of Grand Lake, which was our destination.  We walked and walked some more–still nothing was open.  Finally we got to the main street, and as we walked along with our stomachs growling, we did notice that every motel we passed had a “Vacancy” sign.  “Hah!” we thought.  “So much for the people who said we’d never find a place to stay on 4th of July weekend!”  But we didn’t stop–our mission was “Find breakfast!”  and besides that, we planned to stay at the hostel. And hooray–there finally was a restaurant open:  The Fat Cat, with an all-u-can-eat breakfast buffet!  We left our packs by the fireplace and proceeded to EAT!  The owners have a British background, so in addition to the usual American breakfast stuff, they also had Scotch eggs, bread pudding and other goodies.  The Brit-style scones were clearly labelled, “These are for butter & jam!  No gravy, please!”

When we were done eating, to our amazement, the owner lady came to us with a ziplok bag and said, “You guys are CDT hikers, and I know you are always hungry.  Here, fill this up with whatever you want, and take it with you for later.”  Wow!   We filled that bag with pastries and other yummy stuff.

Then we headed up the hill to the Shadowcliff Hostel to get our resupply box and a place to stay.  The views from the hostel deck are beyond amazing.  And yes, our box was there, and we happily signed the CDT trail register….but then the manager sadly told us that they only have two spots left for tonight–in the MEN’s dorm.  Well, that would be fine for Fixit, but not for me.  Sigh.  So we used the hostel dining room table to spread out our food and sort it into our food bags for the next leg of the CDT, then we went back down the hill and started making like Mary and Joseph, looking for a place to stay.  We are just too tired to go back to the trail yet.

But that’s when we discovered that even though all the motels had vacancies, their price for a night’s stay was beyond outrageous–way beyond our budget.  Finally, at the far end of town, the last hope, was the Sunset Motel.  Even their rate was ridiculous, but they did agree to let us camp out in back for $25.  We could take a shower in the “shower building” next door, and  there was a public bathroom across the street from the motel.

So we said, “OK” and found a spot by the dumpster out back.  Then the clouds blew back a bit and the sun came out–hooray!  We took our damp stuff, including the tent, and laid it out on top of the dumpster to dry.  As soon as the tent was dry (which didn’t take long) we set it up–just in the nick of time, because the clouds closed back up and the rain began again.  We laid our very tired selves down inside the nice dry tent and just collapsed for awhile.  I finally revived enough to start studying the maps of the trail to Steamboat Springs.

Finally the sun came out again and I decided to be very brave and go take a shower.  The reason I had to be brave was that all I have for a “towel” is my bandana, so I’m not really “dry” when I get dressed again, and my hair is very wet–so if it’s a cloudy, chilly day, I soon would find myself very cold.  But the sun looked like it might stay for at least an hour, maybe, so I went for it.  It felt so good to be clean!

Once my hair was sufficiently dry, I walked down the street to the grocery store to get something for lunch.  I picked out all the things we really miss having on the trail, so it was a very odd collection of food–various fruits, avocado, cucumbers and V-8 juice. There was a picnic table behind the motel, so we sat there and happily ate everything, including the entire ziplok full of goodies from The Fat Cat.  Just as we finished eating, back came the rain, and we dashed for the tent again.  This time, I looked over our food and wrote a shopping list of what to buy for the next leg of the trail.  Once the rain subsided to a mere drip, I headed back to the grocery store, and managed to find everything except a very important item–candy bars!  I looked everywhere and could not find any.  Finally I asked the store clerk, and it turned out that the candy bars are all kept securely away from the public, behind the counter.  The clerk said that so many people STEAL the candy bars that they were losing way too much money.  Now all candy is kept in “protective custody.”  So I had to TELL her what I wanted, and she got them out.  Sad.

Back at the tent, I carefully repaired our rather battered food bags with tape, and loaded them up with over 4 1/2 days of food, which should be more than enough to get us to Steamboat Springs.  We’ll need to do at least 18 miles per day (pathetic by our PCT standards).  Then I lay down to just rest.  I am still so tired.  Finally at the end of the day, Fixit and I went hunting for some dinner and ended up at a Mexican restaurant, having “Giant Burritos.”  The people at the table next to us were amazed to see that we finished them.  Then we went for a walk to see the Grand Lake “beach” (stopping off for an ice cream cone along the way).  Grand Lake is the largest natural lake in Colorado, and it really is beautiful.  Not too many people out, though–it was cloudy and cold and windy.

I went back to the tent and crawled into my sleeping bag, while Fixit went on one last walk in search of wi-fi–he is still trying to sort out what happened with the new watch he ordered.  I’m not sure how much sleep we will get tonight–there’s a loud party going on the the house right behind the motel, and from what we can see, there are parties going on all over town.  The place is packed for the 4th of July weekend.  But tomorrow, we’ll be back on the trail!