Yet again, a late night was followed by a sleepy morning. I was on the trail before 8:30. I messaged Sole Saver when I got a cell signal 3 miles from the trailhead about getting picked up. And again at 1.4 miles from the trailhead. I arrived at Etna Summit before 10am.
Someone was dropping off a hiker here and offered to carry me down. The hiker (Blender) handed me a half melted snickers ice cream bar in passing and then the driver (Kate) said that he had planned to be driven to the trail by Sole Saver but she was having car trouble. So I took her offer of a ride into town.
She dropped me at the Etna Motel, but they had no vacancies, nor did the nearby Collier Hotel, so I paid the city 5 dollars (online) to let me camp in the park and then went to Ray’s (for limes and root beer) and Dollar General (for the rest of my resupply, which I packed up right outside the store while polishing off my six pack of mini A&W root beers.
I relocated to the park only to find that the shower there did not run on quarters but tokens sold at Ray’s. I went back and paid 5 dollars for the shower (including towel) and returned to the park to find that with the power outlet the shower would eat the tokens and not turn on at all. So I made my own shower by putting my water bag on the shower rack and using the provided shampoo and towel to get clean. I didn’t mind the lack of hot water. Down there in the valley, it was already 98F outside, so I would have opted for a cooler shower anyway.
I left all my stuff in the shower cabin, which was its own separate single stall building, and carried my dirty laundry to the laundromat. In the spirit of things not working, the detergent dispenser was broken, so I had to go to the nearby gas station to buy a small bottle of detergent. The next hour was pretty uneventful, just waiting for clothes to wash and dry. I took my laundry back to the shower to change and put the unused detergent and the shower card (which had a 7 dollar balance–enough for 3 more people to do laundry, as the minimum amount you can put on them is 9 dollars) in the hiker box next to it.
It was late afternoon by this point, so I walked over to the Etna Brewing Company for dinner (along with the other two hikers who were staying in the park with me, though we sat separately).
Over dinner (scotch egg, rib sandwich with root beer barbecue sauce, salad) and drinks (six small pours of their brews and their root beer–the stand-outs were the blackberry blonde, the Triple IPA, and the blackberry sour), I watched a TV show with a friend back home, uploaded a few blog posts, and made some phone calls and texts arranging upcoming hiking logistics.
Finally, around 7:30, I returned to the park to remove my things from the shower and set up my tent, then immediately get inside to flee from the bugs. As it was going to be a relatively warm night, I folded back my vestibules completely for optimal airflow. I basically never do that. Then I messed around on my phone for a few hours as the light faded.
I did, at some point during the day, arrange for Sole Saver to carry me back to the trail in the morning, so it seemed like I wouldn’t be trapped in town after all.
Trail miles: 3.8
Etna Summit trailhead 
this is not the Etna Brewing Company but it is down this road 
A very nice tree 
With my tent in full breeze mode, I can clearly see the moon 