Day 8: Mile 150 – From Benedetti’s and Paradise Valley Cafe

Miles traveled: 21

Mile marker: 151.8

It’s early in the morning when I wake up and see the galaxy painted above me. A mosquito buzzes around me and I cover my face with my jacket to try to sleep. My alarm hasn’t gone off for a while. While cowboy camping is absolutely beautiful, I sleep better in a tent. And a bed.

The morning begins with my 5:00 am alarm, silence, and turning to dad.

“I’m tired,” he says.

«Me too,» I say.

We begin to prepare. It takes me an hour and soon we are off, passing through pockets of warm and cool air.

Today I’m tired. I stayed up late writing, late because we got to camp a little late. Most of my morning thoughts focus on random scenarios, like watching me walk toward my old communities after the trail or meeting Michael Easter, the author of the book that got me on the trail in the first place.

We are walking through similar terrain to yesterday. It is crossing the hills with low brush holding on to our clothes; now I have a hole in the hip of my shorts. I think I’ll leave it at that.

«Dad, look at me!» -I say jokingly. Yesterday dad mentioned that you can walk and filter water at the same time. I managed to get my water bottle with the filter out of the right pocket of my bag; This particular pocket is actually shorter than the other so you can reach back and grab things more easily as you walk.

The land here is relatively flat and wide, making it easy to filter the water.

I finally see the sign we were waiting for.

From Benedetti!

A tailed angel named Rich is waiting by the sign. He’s waiting for a woman who injured her ankle.

“I was really late, maybe an hour or so,” we say. Rich mentions that the hiker who recently died passed away in this section. That news was something I was aware of even before starting the journey. A great nature lover, as I read. He’s also on Trek, where I post.

Rich offers us a ride, but we choose to walk 7/10 of a mile down the road. This would have been a fun and bumpy ride in a car!

The sun is getting hotter. I’m crawling with my trekking poles. My hood sits over the bill of my hat, something I have yet to do since I started walking. I don’t like how it blocks my vision, but it’s so sunny today that I need extra protection.

We finally reached our destination. We are greeted by a blonde woman named Lori. They are offering water, a bucket to wash feet and clothes, a pool (how exciting!), WiFi, and some food. They give me a cheese stick, a coke and a nice tangerine. Delicious! The cheese was especially amazing. The tangerine was sweet and juicy, and the flavor exploded on my tongue as I ate it. Never mind that I dropped it while trying to grab a bucket from a kind hiker who helped me. I rinsed it off and it was like the dirt had never touched it.

Maung! A Californian of Burmese origin enters this oasis. He is tanned and sweaty from the hot walk. Maung and I met my first day of hiking. Today is the first time I’ve seen him since we’ve been on the road! He has a young daughter who would like to walk with him more. A lot of people are surprised that my dad and I can do this together.

After rinsing off, I get into the pool. It’s like ice! I slowly go down as goosebumps spread across my body.

Cold!

Rafiki joins me, shoulders up to his ears, face contorted from the discomfort of the cold. I immerse my body. It’s cold for a moment, but when I get out, I feel a little better.

«Okay, okay, I’m going to dunk,» Rafiki says. «I’m getting ready!»

A whole minute has passed like this, so I push him back into the water. Ha! He is standing with a Oh!

Dad joins us for an ice cold bath. I go out and start cleaning my feet in preparation for treating the blisters.

Once it’s dry, Rafiki and a hiker named Hummingbird sit next to me while I insert a safety pin into the soft skin to drain it. Liquid leaks out of my foot as I press down on the sticky liquid inside. I soon sell it and take my clothes from the clothesline.

There are quite a few people here and we want to get to Psradise Valley Csfe before they close.

I wet my shirt with water and we set off down the wide, dusty road.

Eleven miles to the “burger” as Denis calls it. At this point it’s already around noon, the worst time to walk.

We turn right along the track and begin a very steep climb. The sun is at its highest point of 116 degrees. It’s incredibly hot at 116 degrees and I keep my mind busy with random things as we continue climbing. Sweat drips down my temples, behind my head, and down my neck.

Dad keeps a steady pace. I prefer this. If he moves too fast, then I can’t keep up with him. When it moves a little faster than my own comfort speed, I work to try to catch it.

Sometimes I control my breathing: I take a deep breath and exhale slowly and controlledly through my mouth. The sun hits my back and head as if I had walked into an oven. Today is the first day I put the hood completely over the visor; while this is the design for the sun hoodie, it also limits my vision for making it.

We periodically stop to add electrolytes to the water, which is now the temperature of a warm bath. Mmmm. Add Nuun electrolytes and I have hot, barely sweetened sparkling water.

If I think about it too much, I can get sick.

It seems like we’ve been walking through these vast dry lands for hours. Every breeze is like a kiss from heaven, cooling us for a brief moment.

«Hello!» Dad says. He usually walks in front of us and has found a semi-shady place between some rocks and under a tree. Sunlight reflects off the ground as we move forward.

The heat is going to overheat my water, I’m sure. I need to move my backpack, but every time I move, tiny little things stick to my clothes and my mat. The heat is exhausting. After eating some crushed cheddar fries with a spoon, I spread out my mat and crawl under the tree.

Dad and Rafiki are talking about military slang and stories. With my cheek resting on my mat, I fall asleep, which I only know because I move and grab the crushed sticks.

Touch, touch! Dad stomps my foot, which sends an earthquake through my entire body. I snap my head up, a small smear of drool on my cheek.

It’s time to go.

It may have been the micronap or it may have been the sun, but I can’t seem to get my body to go any faster. I crawl like this for a while, Rafiki following close behind.

Dad and Denis are marked by the path. We meet with him for a few minutes and then get back up. Dad is behind me now and we go back and forth over the switch packs, up and down.

The terrain before us is huge, with dry brush and green trees. Giant hills, or mini-mountains, stretch around us. If we fell now, we would surely die falling off this cliff.

The sun is lower, which means it’s giving us a little more grace.

Rafiki and Denis stop in front.

Rattlesnake.

It makes a fairly loud, high-pitched TV static sound. Dad says this one is quieter than usual. Some dust is thrown at the snake and it moves out of the way. Dad and I keep moving and the noise continues even as we pass.

We soon reached another marker. 150 miles! Soon this will not be a great achievement, but for me it is. The last two days have been difficult! And fifty miles on foot is not necessarily an easy task.

At this point my feet hurt a lot. We passed several sandy areas, which is equivalent to walking painfully through the sand of a beach. Laborious.

Dad is waiting for us by the road. He gets up and we begin the walk to Paradise Valley Café.

My feet are like broken sticks. Hurt and pressured. I walk for a while (it’s less than a mile to the restaurant) and soon I start running. It’s surprisingly easy to run with my backpack…hiker math. My thinking is that if I stand less, I will soon be able to stop standing to relieve all this pressure.

At last! We arrived at Paradise Valley Café! We put our suitcases aside and sat down. I order a BBQ burger and a chocolate milkshake, which was thick, chocolatey, creamy tasting, Dense Whipped Cream – The most amazing shake ever created.

The burger is okay, but I’m happy to be there. It was a hard day. Plus, we’ll meet the mayor of Idyllwild: Max the dog!

Maung sits with us for dinner. While I wish I had more energy to devote to the conversation, I’m exhausted. My eyes are glassy, ​​my legs are like planks of wood with pockets of pain in my buttocks and thighs.

After dinner, we walked to the field behind the restaurant. I set up my tent, which is turning out to be pretty perfect by the way, and brush my teeth, passing Rafiki and Denis, who are cowboys camping.

“Why are you brushing your teeth next to us?” -Denis asks.

«You’ll have to educate me on the etiquette of spitting toothpaste on people’s tents,» I say.

«Go spit next to Journey’s tent,» Denis replies.

I really need to learn where to do these things when other people are around.

I get into bed and start journaling, when a group of people join Rafiki and Denis. It’s actually quite funny that even when Rafiki stands twenty feet away from everyone else, and Under a streetlamp, other hikers still seem to corner him for a conversation.

I grab my earplugs. I moved them to my toothbrush bag from my first aid kit. Having them on hand would be easier since I don’t reach for my first aid kit as often. Apparently when earplugs get wet, they don’t compress. I didn’t even think about getting them wet with my toothbrush!

My AirPods are a substitute, but they hurt my ears and I can still hear the conversation.

Thanks to the help of other hikers, I am mastering the navigation system: FarOut. The learning curve is huge here! Every day, I am becoming more proficient at life on the trails.

Today was exhausting. I get halfway through my journal, close my phone, and cover my eyes with my fleece.

I’m exhausted, but I’m so glad we decided to hitchhike in Idyllwild tomorrow. Otherwise, we’d be walking five miles today and 20 tomorrow, only to arrive late at the Idyllwild Inn and leave early the next day!

So we basically get a zero day (zero miles traveled). I close my eyes and slip into the world of welcome sleep.