Mom, if you are reading this … Don’t do it. This will stress you unnecessarily.
We woke up at midnight to start our challenge; Beaker was going to try to walk 65 miles at once. I just wanted to see how far I could go.
Many hikers do this through the Wyoming basin, since it is a hot infernal landscape and walking at night is preferable here. Anyway, it is flat and infinite, not much to get lost during the day.
We agree to walk separately and gather in Rawlins, Wy. I wanted Beaker to have the opportunity to see what he was capable of. I also wanted to see what I could do, in my own time.
The night was great and the stars were in full validity. I looked up, feeling like a fish in a bowl, the Milky Way smiling from above. Beaker has orange rope lights covered on his package, which I saw further and further from me in the distance.
I listened to a pack of coyotes howling nearby, and looked in the sage brush listening to running water in the dark. My map told me that I was in a reliable, clean and channeled water source. A rarity here. The following fifty miles promised cow shit puddles, and a water source that looks like a rotten cow body.
Full my water and I hurry. I am having a good time, averaging 3 mph constant and approximately 15 miles already.
The dawn breaks and hasten, knowing that the heat will soon be unbearable and in motion will acquire a different form of pain.
At 11 in the morning I have walked 30 miles and the sun already hurts. I took my umbrella of the pink and pink dollar store and sustained it while, providing very necessary shadow. I maintain a rhythm of approximately 2.8 mph, slowed down due to the sun and I need to make fumbes through water logistics.
I study my map while I walk, realizing that I must fill my water bag and all my bottles in an upcoming current. It will be heavy, but not negotiable given the heat.
Filter while walking, keeping approximately 3 mph despite the sun. Twelve hours after my day, I have walked 35 miles. I brush my hair from my face and I feel that salt crystals scratch my skin. I have not stopped at all, even so, apart from urinating and filtering water.
I get to Bull Springs, a well with solar energy and my last reliable water source during the next 15 miles. Full all my receptacles and walked.
My water knows chlorine due to tablets and is boiling in the sun. I feel that I am drinking hot water from the pool but strengths the sips, despite. The heat reaches a turning point and, despite my best efforts, suddenly I am severely dehydrated.
My legs squeezed painfully. I wanted nothing more to stop moving, but I couldn’t; I had enough water to reach 15 miles to the road, but not enough if it stopped moving completely.
My rhythm slowed down and felt shot pain in my body. I tried to drink the best I could, but the hot water made it difficult.
I arrived at an intersection of paths, excited to discover that it was 5 miles from the road. He had walked 45 miles in the afternoon. This emotion dissipated when I found myself greeting an asphalt path that I knew I had to take. I did not have the energy to be alert to my surroundings, and I heard that the path running next to the road was plagued with rattlesnakes.
Two miles on my road walk, I was balanced with dizziness. I went to sit and slowly survived, lying on the floor. I got up slowly and took as many water drinks as possible.
I could see the road, but I didn’t feel it approached with any of my steps. Torture.
Finally, I succeeded. There was 50 miles without significant breaks. I stayed with my thumb out, swinging awkwardly, since at this point it hurt arrest exciting.
During a traffic pause, I took the last of my water and went to sit on the road shoulder. I suddenly lying down. I went to bed a few minutes, completely resigned, waiting for a passer -by to see me and help me.
Finally, I loved myself again and put my thumb. A man stopped. Delirious, I got into his front seat. A few minutes after the trip, I realized that I had made a mistake.
Smelling aggressively, he told me that he was driving to California, either to find a girlfriend or visit one. I couldn’t say it. I was on full alert, my instinct told me that I was not safe.
He asked what he was doing there.
«I am walking from Canada to Mexico,» I say gently.
«Because?!» He shouts: «That’s too much!»
At that moment I agreed.
«Are you just outside?» The man asks. I feel nervous.
«No,» I say with confidence, «I am with my boyfriend and my friends, everyone is waiting for me in Rawlins at this time, actually. Super excited that I am arriving in the city.»
Beaker is already there and has reserved a motel room. We spent a great sign on the road for the departure of Rawlins, which passes the driver. I feel my heart in my throat and suddenly I am panicked. I try to rationalize … Maybe it was lost? Accidents happen. But he told me it’s from here.
«Uh, you can turn left in the light after this to get to Rawlins,» I say. He looks at me as if I had forgotten that I am there. I notice track marks on your arm.
«Ah, Oky!» He says, remaining firmly in the right lane. We passed the left that had asked him to take and he continues on the road without indication of stopping. I look out of my window and consider how injured it would be if I jumped from a moving car.
I can’t believe this is happening. Of all the problems I have done on this trip, the only time I am alone, this happens.
I level from me quickly; It is no coincidence that this is happening when I am alone. This is happening because I am alone. This is exactly how bad things happen. Why hadn’t it been more careful?
If this really went to the south, the irony of my situation did not lose me. He survived the difficult terrain, just to finish here.
«Take this next left,» I say firmly. The man looks at me furiously for a moment, his expression softens in a strange white look. Slowly he gets into the left lane, taking the five minutes of the city in silence.
He stops his car. «Good luck,» he says, «you will need it.» I take out my backpack and I encounter your car, limbing the hotel.
Beaker greets me at the door with barbecue. My fifty mile day no matter. All that matters is that I did it alive.
I lay down and close my eyes. Nothing has felt so good.
