Day Three
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Lisa: We would have liked to spend more time at Basecamp Flint Hills, but we had miles to go before we could sleep. And we were looking forward to spending the night indoors in Miller!
Marianne: I still couldn’t believe that Lisa and I had nine full days to be together, talk about our lives, and laugh our heads off. And we were DOING this thing and it wasn’t killing us. We were having such a great time! Ever since May, 2023, when we hiked nine grueling miles on the Centerpoint Trail near Ponca, Arkansas, our motto has been “We can do hard things!”
Allen to Miller
Stayed in the fellowship hall of the Miller United Methodist Church
11.17 trail miles, 13.63 total miles
51° at 7:30 a.m. with a high of 78°
Miller
During the planning stages of our hike, we had a tough time finding places to spend the night because of the limited mileage we could cover on foot every day. Some of the information online was outdated—one website said it offered overnight accommodations to hikers/bikers, but it turned out to be no longer true. So I started emailing churches in the the small towns along the trail, asking if we could pitch our tent on their property. One of the churches offered to let us stay inside their building: the Miller United Methodist Church. The sign below hangs inside their building in several places, and these good folks truly live by it.
Click on the yellow crosses to the right to read the sections below
Downers
Lisa:
- The North Lyon County Museum in Admire (between Allen and Miller) was closed so we couldn’t tour it.
Marianne:
- We saw no people in Admire. Felt a little apocalyptic!
Highlights
Lisa:
- Visiting the tornado shelter inside the beautiful old Admire Rural High School, built in 1923
- Someone along the way said they thought we were pushing babies in our strollers, so Marianne and I named our babies. Mine was Sebastian and hers was Aloysius, so for the rest of the hike, we kept saying, “Oh, Sebastian will love Pomona Lake!” or “Aloysius needs to stop and take a rest.”
- Meeting Sandy (church admin), Leah (church cleaner), Cade, and Nate (Leah’s kids)
- The refrigerator they filled for us
- Sandy brought us two movies to watch on the big screen in their fellowship hall
- Indoor plumbing!
Marianne:
- Cade told us about a scavenger hunt for colored rocks with messages on them. (It’s part of the the Kindness Rocks Project.) We realized we’d seen some by a memorial bench before Admire.
- Getting to wash up with indoor plumbing!*
*Lisa: Perhaps you noticed that Marianne straight-up copied one of my highlights. Just remember that I said it first.
Fast Facts: Miller, Kansas
- Founded in 1910
- Post office discontinued in 1958
- No population data available
- Considered part of Waterloo Township
- At the Miller trailhead, there’s a vault toilet and picnic shelter and place to camp
Photo Gallery
Click on a photo for a captioned slide show to learn what you're looking at
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