I’m getting off track. – The walk

I woke up covered in a thin layer of dirt. Last night it was very windy. In the middle of the night, a large gust of wind lifted one of my poorly placed tent stakes causing a loud flapping sound that woke me up. I told myself that if it was around 4am, I would ignore it, knowing I would be up in an hour. Unfortunately I tapped my watch and 2am lit up on the screen. Keeping my end of the bargain, I crawled into the vestibule of my tent and redid the stake to try and get a few more hours of sleep.

I was at the end of my first food haul, with only a granola bar and a few bags of snacks to get me through the day. The guys were talking about taking it easy and doing a 12 mile day with a Nero in Julian tomorrow. The timing would have aligned nicely with my resupply plan of arriving in Julian alone, resupplying, and then meeting them in town the next day.

Growing up about 40 minutes from Julian, my parents so generously offered to have dinner with me and bring me supplies. Knowing that the kids wouldn’t be arriving in town until tomorrow, along with last night’s interrupted sleep, I asked if they could take me home for a night’s rest and return to town in the morning. They kindly agreed, so we set out for the day.

About 6 miles down the trail, we all stopped in the shade for a quick break. All the boys felt strong and wanted to pressure Julian to have a zero day in the city. New plan. My family would pick us all up at the Scissor Crossing to go into town!

Doing the last few kilometers before crossing the scissors at noon can be described in one word; Hot. There is minimal shade and no water for miles, meaning large amounts of water of 3 to 4 liters are carried. Despite the conditions, we were still making great time, arriving at the scissors junction at 3:00 p.m.

We went to Julian for a great dinner at the brewery before everyone split up to do their town chores and get some sleep. I returned home to my family, did some much-needed laundry, and got a lot more snuggles with my dog.

We’ll all meet in town tomorrow for cake and head to the Stagecoach caravan park for one more night, completing a complete zero before getting back on the road.

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