Thinking Allowed: Day 3: remote beach to Teshio

Hours walked: 6:00 - 5:30

Distance walked: 34 km

Cumulative: 95 km

Yikes! This was a mega day. We all got up at 4:30 am, relieved to find our food untouched despite hoofprints nearby. It once again took an hour and a half to pack up, with Levi running amok. The day started cool, and the road was empty of cars for awhile. We read out loud, did math, played some games as we walked, and made steady progress.

After five kilometers we reached a rest stop with an elderly woman cleaning it. Here we filled water, which turned out to be critically important as the other two rest stops of the day were both closed. Poor Tova needed a bathroom quite badly, but her legs were so sore that she opted to endure for over 3 hours. Also, it started pouring rain with more than an hour to go, and everything got wet.

Jakob’s back was really achy, and Tova’s legs, so they split off about 5 km from Teshio, dripping their way through a spotless construction headquarters for Tova’s bathroom break. Upon reaching town, Jakob’s phone instantly died from water exposure (the inner pocket of his raincoat wasn’t dry enough) :( They limped through town with no map, no translation, not knowing where the others were. It was sad.

Eventually salvation arrived in the form of a kindly woman who drove them to the campsite, and a fortunate reunion. We got a cozy cedar cabin, covered it in waterlogged gear, made our long-awaited mac n cheese, and crashed after a heck of a long day, wondering how this whole long-distance-hike thing was going to work out…