Brian’s Microblog

July 27, 2026

We slept in until 6:30. We managed to get some hot drinks from the bar/kitchen downstairs, but I had to use my camping mug and a tea bag because Julie found the last mug in the kitchen. For the price we are paying at the Avon Hotel the amenities seem lacking.

It was really foggy in the morning. We walked several blocks up to the Kendall Mountain Cafe and had really nice breakfasts. Julie got the huevos rancheros and ended up with lots left over and I got a “Monte Cristo” breakfast sandwich of French toast with eggs, ham, and cheese. Their French toast is really good!

We stopped in a shop on the way back to the room and each bought a fourth pair of Darn Tough merino wool socks. We really like these socks but they take so long to dry when we wash them on trail, and it looks like we are going to see more rain, that we decided it is worth carrying a few ounces more to have dry socks.

Back at the hotel I worked on the blog a bit and Julie organized our food and finalized our shopping list. She went out and found that the bike shop had some trekking poles so I joined her and picked out some - another $100. We also found some good protein bars and drink mixes at the hardware store.

Back at the room I tried to drown my inflatable mattress in the bathtub because it has a slow leak. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything definitive, although it might be leaking from the valve.

We ate our leftover pizza and Julie’s breakfast for lunch. “Lifer” and his brother, who hiked up to meet him on the trail, showed up and talked with us for quite a while. Interesting guys but boy do they talk a lot!

I worked on the blog and Julie researched water and camping options on the last few segments. There was a huge thunderstorm around 4:30 that went on until almost 5:30. Torrential rain with occasional blasts of hail and some major wind gusts. We were very grateful not to be out on the trail, but we thought about some of the hikers like Bright Side who had headed back up to the trail after riding the train into town and doing a quick resupply - hopefully it was not as bad up on the mountains above town.

We walked back to the Golden Block Brewery again. We got a very tasty “Chinese Laundry” pizza for dinner and a sandwich “to go” for lunch on the trail tomorrow.