Day Five
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Lisa: After a great night of sleep in a real bed in Danielle and Colton’s beautiful Airbnb, we were raring to tackle our longest hiking day. (Who are we kidding? Neither of us slept for shit.)
Marianne: We started out early since we knew we had our longest day of walking. It was another beautiful day and a little chilly.
Our new friend Renee (a new mom by the way), was waiting with our breakfast burritos! They were fantastic! We had one for breakfast and the other for lunch!
I was (and still am) touched by her effort to take care of us. She not only cooked for us and was taking care of a new baby, more importantly, she shared her precious time with us. We were grateful.
Osage City to Pomona State Park
Burning Heart Campground
16.64 trail miles, 18.34 total miles
55° at 7 a.m. with a high of 90°
Pomona State Park
In addition to the glorious dinner at Bunky’s, the Community Covenant Church hooked us up with a wonderful member named Renee, who made us breakfast burritos to take on the trail for our longest hiking day.
Click on the yellow crosses to the right to read the sections below
Downers
Lisa:
- The heat, man, the heat!
- Apple Maps took us off the trail too soon and directed us to walk on a shoulderless two-lane highway for two miles to reach the Burning Heart Campground. Too many hills to count, too many opportunities to become two smears on the highway from oncoming cars/trucks who wouldn’t see us until too late.
- Extreme exhaustion.
- I booked the wrong kind of campsite: it was for RVs, which meant there were no toilet facilities for over a mile.
Marianne:
- Walking on a shoulder-less highway really increases your adrenaline! You’re super aware that you could be roadkill soon, which increases your will to live!
- Having to decide whether to walk another mile to the showers or go to bed without one. We opted for showers.
- Regret that Lisa took a video of me acting out the scene from Stand by Me.
- We were too tired to climb the stairs down (and climb back up) to the beach.
- We had Knorr noodles for dinner. I got the idea off of a backpacking site on how to save money on food. $1.39 for a package. Skip the Knorr. Spend the extra money!!
Highlights
Lisa:
- Shower facilities!
- Even though it was the wrong kind of campsite, we had water and electricity.
- We met a guy named Kenny who had a pickup truck and gave us and our strollers a ride to the trail the next morning to save us from getting creamed on the highway walking back there.
- Great satisfaction in finishing our hardest day by far.
Marianne:
- Kenny, the camp host (or was he??) didn’t murder us.
- Kenny showed us a better way to come to the park from the trail. (We just needed to stay on the trail longer.)
Fast Facts: Pomona State Park
- Has 142 utility campsites with electric and water, and some with sewer hookups.
- Cabins are available for reservations
- Swimming and fishing
Photo Gallery
Click on a photo for a captioned slide show to learn what you're looking at
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