«I go with everyone at 4 in the morning, whether you are ready or not,» I say through the darkness of Beaker. I laugh while I see him with my lighthouse, comically slow despite his best efforts to hurry. The others are full and head towards us. I am also full and ready for the day.
I join the doctors and drugs of Chai, forming a single file line in the dark. My lighthouse is dying almost immediately. I curse me for not buying batteries in the last city, I renounced to remain in the line of my friends, destroying the remains of the light of his lighthouse until the sun rises.
«Aw, I feel bad for leaving Beaker,» says Thunderbear.
«No,» I say, dryly. «We do this every morning. It will quickly get up»
Droobie nods. «You need an incentive to move,» he adds.
The sky on me is full of stars, the dairy road clearly visible. I shout my neck to look up, stumbling with the rocks as I do, but I keep stealing glimpses anyway.
The path is merciful flat, and we have already achieved almost ten of our 18 miles before the sun is completely raised. The weak smell of sulfur welcomes me to Yellowstone.
In the dark we stop on a small metal sign leaning on a pile of rocks. In Black Sharpie, he says: «Welcome to Wyoming, Sobo’s!»
Beaker appears on the back of the group. We all turn to take photos between them for the sign.
I have the jets of my city, the day feeling full of adventure with the change in our collective routines. I get impatient with stopping next to the sign in the dark and I begin in silence to the forest, my eyes quickly fit the dawn.
«Be careful!» I hear Droobie shout. I do it somehow before seeing rocker lights that greet me from behind. I am a little relieved, since I felt very aware of the presence of Grizzlies as soon as I began to walk alone.
I listen to a whisper in the trees and start screaming frantically: «Hello bear!» I take my eyes with a horrified hiker on a bush and I realize that I just shout at a Nobo hiker trying to make shit. I apologize, make a point of looking the other way and walk quickly.
The night folds until the morning, and confidently advances to the next water source, Summit Lake. The sun just begins to grow on the line of the trees, the beams that blind me while bounced and reflect the morning water. The steam rises from the surface of the lakes. The shore is mainly swamp and mud, but I find a place solid enough to fill my water bag with water very necessary to filter.
The path is lovely, with boiling clay pots and geothermal characteristics far removed from most tourists. My emotion accumulates for the old faithful with each step.
The Pacific path becomes abruptly into paved hell full of tourists. I see tourists dancing next to geyseres, beyond the designated areas that are destined to stop safely. I lowered my head and walked as quickly as I can Old Faithful Village, stopping only because a crowd formed ahead.
Castle Geyser erupts and they stop me dry, I realize that this is my first experience to see evidence of the land that is agitated under me. I take a fast video, then walk.
I have walked 18 miles at 9:30 am I enter Old Faithful Lodge, the oldest trunk that is built in the United States, and I immediately turn around and I feel outside to pick me up. The crowds are more overwhelming than I had planned.
I have no service and, without a doubt, I will not find my friends at this Mass, so I think about a plan. I will buy coffee, then I will wait outside and people look until I see them a path.
The simple act of sitting on a comfortable bank feels luxury. This, combined with a cup of hot coffee? Bliss. I see multitude of tourists and listen to their conversations. I am crossed in front of a row of cars parked with Valet, enjoying paying attention to the people who pass.
An old man in a bank next to me points in a parked car, and says «that is mine», then laughs bustlingly. We laugh together, as if we were so close to such a pleasant car is a joke in itself.
A family happens to me, the father clearly gestures in my direction. He turns to his family.
«Don’t you love people looking?» He asks.
I guess we all enjoy looking at ourselves.
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