Tuesday August 19, 1.5mi/2.4km
BLM Fire Station (95.9/2670ft) to Hammett (94.4/2540ft) (ID)
I slept surprisingly well given how close I was to an interstate and railroad tracks. It was an easy mile and a half walk into the town of Hammett.
Crossing over interstate 84, this one runs from Salt Lake City to Portland. Weirdly it doesn’t connect to the usual interstate 84 in PA/NY/CT.
I was hoping to see a train but the tracks were quiet this morning.
I finally saw my first potatoes in Idaho! After hiking 900 miles across Idaho, and never seeing a single potato, I saw some spilled on the shoulder of the road. Ha!
It was 8am so I walked directly to the post office and got my new shoes, which will be my final pair for this trail.
I waited at the main crossroads of Hammett for an hour before I was able to successfully hitch a ride to Mountain Home, 20 miles away. It didn’t help that during that time the Elmore County sheriffs were on a manhunt and kept circling through the area. One of them even stopped to warn me that it wasn’t legal to hitchhike in Idaho, but they had bigger issues to deal with right now. I saw two guys drive by in a work truck towing a trailer with trenching equipment, and they must have really wanted to give me a ride because they drove past me, pulled a u-turn with a trailer, and then picked me up! Super nice. If people want to pick you up, they will find a way. 30 minutes later, we were in Mountain Home.
We drove directly to Albertsons and I bought them a coffee at the Starbucks there. And then I had a second breakfast.
I would have thought potato chips would be cheap in Idaho, turns out they’re more expensive than anywhere else.
After doing some grocery shopping, I walked a few blocks to Manhattan Cafe and had third breakfast.
After consuming so many calories, I decided to walk to the south end of town to my motel and try to check in early.
It worked! The guy was super nice and let me check in at 12:30pm.
It’s a huge room with a full kitchen, so in theory I could save money, and make dinner in the room, but I didn’t feel like walking all the way back to the Albertsons on the other side of town. I unpacked a bit and took my first shower, then I was feeling a little hungry again so I walked a few minutes to the Pizza Hut next door.
Apparently Pizza Hut lunch buffet still exists somewhere in this country.
After eating way too many breadsticks and slices, I waddled back to my room at 2:30 and took a nap. I caught up with a bunch of friends and family on the phone, watched a few episodes of a new Netflix series I’ve been getting into, and even finished reading my book. I grabbed a late dinner from a little Mexican food cart, it was a perfect end to the day.