Miles traveled: 22.7
Mile marker: 406.6
I thought it was a good idea to leave at 6:30 am As I put my new tent (which is a wonderful palace) into its bag, the pungent smell of the toilet hits me in the face.
Lucie and I laughed and held our noses in disgust. The pit toilet is a composting toilet. The way it works is to use the bathroom and then step on a pedal five times. Every time you take a step, the conveyor belt moves a little. After five pumps, your tank will not be visible.
I tried not to vomit while going through this process.
We are all ready and stand in a circle, eating cookies for breakfast with blank faces and shivering early in the morning. It’s a quarter to seven when we start walking. Everyone begins the walk wearing their fleeces.
Not far into the hike and we stop at a washed out area. Lucie is on the phone with her family. I open a crustless PBJ and we sit for a few minutes. Bumper, Savannah and I are behind Rafiki. The wind is strong here and we are all shivering and cold. Rafiki feels a little offended that he has to be the windshield, since we all seem to be standing in a tango line.
Soon we will be on our way again. We have taken off our fleeces and the sun warms our faces. A sea of clouds is below us. I almost feel like I’m back in Maui, looking at a rock where the waves crash against it.
It’s not even eight o’clock when we hit the road. It’s funny, but there are some endangered frogs around here. That means we won’t walk the trail. The road is very wide. The lines separating left and right are much larger when walking next to them compared to when you’re in the car and they whiz by in a flash of yellow. There are also cracks in the floor and I almost fell into one while trying to walk and write at the same time.
The trees are tall and thin, and a bit sparse. The hills beside us are dotted with greenery.
On the road again, there is dense fog in the distance. The trees are still thin and sparse, giving the landscape a sense of tranquility and abandonment. Stringy grass sprouts from the ground, along with sharp puffs of grass that look like small troll heads.
We reach the road again. A cloud of fog passes over us. It is faint and extended. The shadow also crawls on the ground, as if someone had shredded a ball of cotton.
We cross a road and go back up the track. It is usually uphill from the roads. I don’t like this as climbing a hill is my enemy. The cloud has settled in front of us and it looks like you can just step off the ledge and bounce along the cloud. Rafiki is filming the site when he pans the camera and says, «Oh, and there’s Bumper pooping. That’s cool.»
We all died laughing. Bumper had to go and there wasn’t much room for him. I don’t think he expected anyone to turn around and see him. We all laughed a lot at this. We continue uphill.
There is a sort of goal and through walk, which is a 10 mile walk before 10 a.m. This is known as 10 before 10. However, we are way off course. We have stopped a lot today and moved very slowly. I thought today was supposed to be a lot easier, flatter. Instead, there has been a lot of uphill climbing. I tend to move very slowly going uphill. I’m like a snail.
The ground is hard and rocky. It is the color of sand. We get to the top of a small hill and there is a table with a bunch of giant pineapples on it.
We have officially arrived at the place where the yellow-legged mountain frog is endangered. Now comes the way on foot. We see so many snow flowers. Dad told me they’re weird, so I told the others. But we’ve seen so many during the trip that all the other hikers are wondering if the snow flower is really rare. They are beautiful. They seem to come from another planet. They are bright red with a hint of pink. They look like they have pods and when they are in full bloom, the pods spin.
We turn a corner and there is a group of hikers playing on the side of the road. There’s even a guy lying in the middle of the road, smoking a cigarette. Hiker trash if I ever saw it.
Our water source is here. I go down the slightly dirty path and carefully place myself on some rocks to collect some water. When I return, Lucie says she’ll stay back for a while.
The rest of us returned to the forest. It’s very hilly back here. We went down to a stream and ended up losing the trail. Trees are knocked over, stones are thrown everywhere, and there is a giant wall of sand that is difficult to overcome. It’s like Mission Creek all over again.
Why don’t we just walk the path?
Rafiki walks down one potential path, while the rest of us follow Dad down another. Rafiki ends up finding a better option, and Bumper and Savannah return and are able to climb the path. Dad, however, can jump over the sand wall. He offers me his hand to help me. He’s going to lift me up to stand next to him. The only problem was that I didn’t secure my foot on the floor, so it basically pushed me against the wall. I’m face down, trying to swing my leg toward the ground. I’m much heavier with 30 pounds on my back.
My legs are covered in dirt now.
«I thought you were going to jump!» he says.
“I was trying to grab a foot,” I reply.
Dad and I can probably improve our communication skills.
We finally emerged from the tangle of trees, turned the corner and walked for a minute when we found the number 400 written in pine cones on the ground. We have traveled 400 miles!
It’s funny, a month ago if you had told me I was going to walk 400 miles, it would have seemed like a very long way. However, it doesn’t seem so long now. It doesn’t look like I walked 400 miles. After all, it only took me less than a month.
We come to a pole that says “cell service,” we all turn our phones off to airplane mode to check. There isn’t much cell service worth it.
As we continue walking, the clouds start to look a little dangerous. They look like they are full of water and walking in the rain is not fun. Time drops drastically. It’s cold and we all put on our raincoats. I can see the road from where I’m on top. The wind blows in my ears. I think I hear something howling in the distance, and I’m not sure if it’s a dog or the wind. This is kind of creepy. As I turn the corner off the detour and onto the road, there’s a car picking up a couple of hikers we’ve encountered several times.
“Showers, comfortable beds and Italian sausages and pasta.” says a grey-haired gentleman. «Oh yeah, do you guys want some drinks?»
The two hikers in the car give us their business brochure. It’s only $40 a night and they offer a lot. Showers and laundry are important needs in the hiking community. But we already have plans for tonight. We’re going to get to Agua Dulce in just a couple of days.
The driver gets out of the car and starts carrying boxes for us. Grapes, cucumbers, snicker bars, potato chips, Gatorade’s, little Debbie’s Pies – she had a lot to give us!
“I needed a pick-me-up!” Dad says.
We keep moving. What a delight! Debbie’s little cake is like crack. It is so sweet and chocolatey, a delight for this climate that gets colder with every step.
Bumper hasn’t been feeling well today. He quadrupled his protein intake and ate a lot of chocolate, so he spends most of the day alone. I thought he was just tired because he didn’t sleep well last night.
Dad is in front of us and I start to move quickly. We still have a few miles left and I’m ready to set up shop in my tent. I’m tired, it’s been a long day and we’ve moved very slowly. It’s already after five in the afternoon. I start moving quickly. Sometimes I run. Every time I look back, the other three are not far behind. My knees hurt. My hamstrings are tight. My trekking poles act as additional appendages, like an octopus or a donkey. The clouds cover us and the afternoon falls. The visor on my visor makes it difficult to see, so I turn it around. I keep jogging downhill or plowing uphill.
I’m tired and ready for this day to be over. Besides, I’m hungry. I’m waiting for a battering ram that actually tastes good, not one that contains disgusting chicken salad.
We reached our water source, a small stream, and quickly filled up with water. Dad and I left the group and headed 0.4 miles to camp. We settle in quickly and soon I’m in my warm clothes. I join the team at a picnic table where I prepare dinner. There is a small fire lit. I don’t have socks on because they’re made of possum wool and I don’t want to get them dirty. My toes are like icicles
«My feet are freezing for you,» Lucie says.
The fire is smoky, but warm. I have dinner here and chat with a couple of hikers I haven’t met yet.
Lucie is full of surprises. He lived in England for three years when he went to university; He specialized in physics. She previously worked as a data scientist, so I thought that was what she studied. I always like it when people are full of surprises.
As soon as I finish eating, I go to my tent. It’s already dark and I don’t like having to end the day in the dark. Things are harder in the dark. It’s cold, my fingers don’t work, which means journaling doesn’t work as well. I end up using speech to text.
Walking 30 feet away to go to the bathroom or brush my teeth is much harder in the dark. Install in the dark: I would not recommend it.
I lay down in my sleeping bag. I’m freezing. I’m face down, with my hands under my hips. I realize I put the straps on my sleeping quilt wrong, but I’m too cold to fix it. Next time I’ll put the straps on correctly. For now I hope to get some sleep in this cold and windy weather.
I thought the desert was supposed to be hot.
