29 October 2026

0 km/0 mi

Sweet, blessed zero day. I make it my personal mission not to move more than is absolutely necessary. The morning is spent writing (and eating yogurt). Unsurprisingly, I’m behind on drafting my posts. And also unsurprisingly, I do not write in a focused manner. I scroll. I text our TA gang group chat. I post pics to my Insta story. But somehow I manage to get the first four days posted. 

We head out for chores and resupply around midday. First up: the pharmacy. I buy basically every pain management thing they have. Ibuprofen capsules. Ibuprofen gel. A knee support. Some antihistamines for good measure because the interminable bug bites are driving me nuts. Mash finds some orange nail polish that we can share. Why not! It’s TA and Halloween colors. 

Outside, we run into Hannah and Izzy and chat about our plan to go to Russell tomorrow. Turns out it’s cheaper for a group of nine of us to split a couple of cabins than to camp. Alright! Hannah goes to the bank and then Izzy, Mash, and I cross the street to raid the dollar store in search of Halloween costumes. Izzy and I, as the resident North Americans and therefore the self-designated Halloween experts, take turns cracking up over fun sunglasses, hats, masks, and tutus. Mash ends up with a creepy demon mask and a pitchfork, Izzy picks a green wig and alien glasses, and I choose a witch hat with orange hair and an orange tutu to match. We send pictures to the group chat and eventually convince everyone to go to the store and pick their own outfits. Trail Halloween is gonna be great.

After that it’s Woolies for a proper resupply. It’s an odd one to shop for because there are little stores along the way where we can pick up snacks, but we don’t want to buy the big stuff in places where it will be too expensive, so we try to focus on dinners and lunches and leave the smaller stuff for the little stores. Even so, we end up with more than we planned for, of course, but that’s okay. Never turn down a snackie, me.

After that I have a nice long video call with my mom, then we have dinner, pack up, and watch a couple episodes of Over the Garden Wall. It’s still hard for me to believe that it’s spooky season at home when it’s so springy here. I’m glad I downloaded the show. It’s ultimate comfort watching. 

Back to trail tomorrow. Hopefully I have successfully banished the pain.