Day 9: Blistering Beautiful - 38km

Jill's to Snooky's

Can you spot Joseph?

So we thought we were going 33km from Jill's house to Snooky's farm in Clemenstvale. But after checking later that night, we realized it was actually 38km! We knew it was going to be a long one, so we were up just after 6am, and left at 9am. We walked for 10 hours that day, but luckily it was a beautiful sunny day. It's amazing to watch the scenery around us evolve as we follow the same road. We were on Highway 8 most of the way, and saw a lot of where the forest fire had been from last year. Despite all the burnt trees and chared ground, there was still new vibrant green life popping up.

Joseph would bike ahead to a grassy patch, where Jewel and I would meet him and stretch out. Any idea of cleanliness out the window, we'd lay down and stretch on the dirt paths, cracking eachother's backs. We stopped for an hour lunch, I'm pretty quick with the little stove now, so we cooked up some rice and veggies. Food always seems to resolve a bit of tension between us. That and a friendly stranger coming by to give us a donation. Talking to someone else gets us out of ourselves and whatever petty argument we were stuck on.

We turned onto Virginia Road and passed beautiful cottages on the lake, and Milford House. It was just Jewel and I, and we enjoyed the view as the sun lowered. I was jamming out to some Alt J, and it made the walk somewhat dreamlike and cinematic. Homeowners always stop and looking either a bit confused or surpirsed at us and our packed horses. That or they wave in recognition. The coffee I'd made at lunch kept me marching on. Jewel and I walk a lot. We think about 50% of the time, sometimes more, to give the horses a break. So we get our exercise too. We got to Rolland and Vivian's at 7:45pm, dinner waiting on the table, showered after, and off to bed. There's their barn on the right below!