Thursday June 12, 10.1mi/16.3km

Austin (859.0/6555ft) to Birch Creek (860.1/6760ft) (NV) + 9.0mi Austin spur

Not a whole lot of interesting things happened today, I finished my usual cleaning chores and then left the hotel at 11am, heading to the little veterans park to sit on a shaded bench while updating my journal. Having finished that I walked a block and returned to the International Cafe, today just ordering french fries. I met a fascinating older couple from Colorado who were wrapping up a huge loop roadtrip to the Olympic peninsula in Washington. After my meal I walked up to the library, and on the way I noticed this old bar. I’m not sure if they ever understood the coincidence of naming their bar Golden Club, while advertising Coors.

The town library had recently moved into an old renovated general store. It was a really neat building.

The inside was small but very nice, and they even had one of those cool rolling ladders to get to the books on the top shelves.

After updating my maps and doing a few other computer chores, I ended up chatting with the librarian about my hiking route. I also learned about Mormon crickets and their part in the history of Mormons and Salt Lake city. The Hot Springs Trail is a lonely trail, and I miss having conversations with other people, especially intelligent conversations with interesting people like her. But alas, it was 4pm and time to leave, so I hiked out and reversed my route from yesterday.

Back up the hill, and then right back down to Birch Creek again.

After 3 hours, I was back on the official Hot Springs Trail, and decided to hike a little further and cover some new terrain. After a mile I found a cozy little spot next to the creek, and set up camp in my new tent.