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Bye to our blister sister 7/18-- Friday Today we continue with one less sister with blisters. Kylie had to leave us to go back to the Bay Area, so wednesday we hitchhiked 1 1/2 hours to Eugene Oregon, with an adventuresome kayaker coincidentally also named Eugene, who was on his way there to pick up action figures at toys r us:! He left us at a bj's restaurant, where we ordered salads ( veggie deprived), then we got a taxi to tour us around the u of o campus.

We got a welcome call from Tara my "niece") who kindly took us to her home,where we got to see Ryan, Ro and theo before we sadly dropped kylie off at the shuttle. (yes, tears were shed by all. We will miss her so much. Tara fixed us up with miracle salves for our blisters, and Ryan and Mikey(resident hiking experts!) helped us lighten our packs. We realized we needed the respite and Tara's wonderful care! Connor and I were so exhausted we could barely get a sentence out-- we crashed at midnight, slept till 9, then took a nap till 2pm. We didn't realize how tired we were.

We discovered that being in civilization is a hugggggge transition. So strange after the solitude and simplicity of the wilderness. As hard as the hike is , physically and mentally, it is truly an enlightening experience on the trail.:) So, back to it with renewed excitement!

We will misss our sister kylie:(((( And a huge thank you to Ian's friends bob and Kyle who kindly gave connor and I a ride back to the trail.