Miles hiked: 18.4
Mile Marker: 347.2
It’s not even 5:00 AM and the rustling of sleeping bags being put away is already happening. My alarm goes off, and per usual, I lay in bed a moment longer before rolling over.
When I emerge from my tent, Bumper and Lucie’s tents are already packed away.
“You guys are fast!” I say.
“I don’t like people waiting on me!” Bumper says.
This leaves me rushing to get my bag packed, once again. I was quite looking forward to not being the last one ready.
“Lucie threw her trash on me yesterday!” Rafiki said with a laugh. “After our pizza party, I asked where the trash can was. Lucie said, ‘Are you going to the trash can?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ She said, ‘Here,’ and put her pizza box in my arms.”
None of us can help but laugh through his whole story. Bumper has a big grin on his face as he videos it for his vlog.
It’s a little chilly in the early morning, but I pack my fleece away anyways. Lucie goes to the big bear can and pulls out a piece of deep dish pizza.
“It’s my pizza!” she says with a smile.
We head down the windy path of campground roads on hard concrete. It’s a slight incline, which is wild considering we walked mostly up to get here yesterday!
The bathrooms are on the way, and I get to use a real toilet! How exciting. I love clean toilets.
We get back on trail, a hard sand with some rocks bordered by tall grass, chia plants (tiny purple pods) and Mojave ceanothus (white tip flowers). I turn a corner and the gentle rush of a creek plays all of a sudden, as if I just turned on the radio. The birds sing a tune in the early morning.
We get up on the ridge and the trail winds around the hill. The trees and Manzanitas are various grades shades of green: fluorescent green to a pale green to a deep forest green. The trail is rocky and continues uphill. My calves tighten. I wonder how the others are faring, considering they each ate pizza beyond comfortable last night.
In the distance, the treetops and shrubs look like little heads of broccoli. The hills look like something out of Lord of the Rings.
Rolling Hills. Green. It’s beautiful.
Dad and Bumper are ahead. Rafiki, Lucie and I break under a tree. The little burrs get stuck in my shorts, but it’s nice to rest a moment. McDonald’s is ahead of us, so I don’t snack too much as I prepare room in my stomach for the fast food treat.
Soon, we’re walking, not too fast but we’re still red-faced and sweating. Rafiki says Lucie and I are going too slow for his knees. He left in the middle of a conversation about hairbrushes and balayages, so I think he just got bored of girl talk.
We bump along the hill as we wind around it. The golden grass looks like hay. There are green bushes with puffs of white flowers. I see a fuzzy red ant, the ones whose bite hurt very badly, so I hear. Lucie and I wonder why there wasn’t just a tunnel to go through this hill we just struggled up on and then hurt our knees down on it.
I think I get a wif of old McDonald’s fries. I can’t wait for McDonald’s. We’ve been talking about what we’re going to order since yesterday!
My right glute hurts from going downhill all of a sudden. Beyond the edge of the hard-packed sandy path is a cliff with a rocky wall. If I fall, I would definitely die.
A cicada buzzes loudly. Earlier this happened, too. Lucie and I wondered if it was a rattlesnake, but Rafiki said it was just a cicada.
Lucie and I work in silence. We pass lizards and horned toads. We’re wrapping along a golden hill, McDonald’s the only thing on our minds.
Dad texts me: a taco truck! I need to use the restroom, but I don’t want to lose Lucie so I just ignore it.
We finally arrive at the road! We swing a right and power walk like motivated mall walkers. Once we hit the yellow fire hydrant, we break into a run.
I burst into the McDonald’s looking for Dad.
He’s not there!
I give him a call as I leave and go to the gas station next to the restaurant. Dad is in the lawn.
Of course he is. When I walked inside, the entire section to my right was filled with thru-hikers and their gear.
From the taco and fruit trucks, I order three tacos and a giant cup of mango, watermelon, and pineapple.
Pork, potato, and bean tacos were all great. The pork was my favorite! So cheesy!
“I was expecting the golden arches of the McDonald’s sign to reach the sky,” Lucie says, recounting her imagined experience to us.
“Instead it’s next to a dump,” Rafiki says.
Sure enough, there is a giant dumpster next to us. Oh, to be wooed by McDonald’s.
We wait around a while. Rafiki bought me a milkshake since I bought him the coconut water — exact cash only that he didn’t have — but I didn’t hear him say he was going to purchase it for me.
He ended up drinking two milkshakes as a result and received a massive stomachache from it.
Poor Rafiki is now tucked in the corner of the booth trying to manage his stomach issues.
We stay here over three hours, waiting out the sun since we’d end up at the campsite early if we left earlier.
Bumper ends up with an extra chicken wrap and offers it to Dad, who takes a bite. “Oh,” he says, “It’s a chicken nugget in a wrap.”
Yup. That’s McDonald’s for you.
In Dad’s defense, the last time he was at McDonald’s was five years ago, at this exact location.
Finally, it’s time to keep walking. Our next mile includes a road walk, going through a dark underpass, crawling under a bridge, walking across slick logs across a creek, going through a tunnel the shape of a giant MRI, hopping over train tracks, and summiting a pride rock.
After all this fun stuff is another three miles of walking. Lucie doesn’t feel well. It looks like too much McDonalds before a six-mile hike in the sun wasn’t a good idea. I’m not feeling too hot myself after a big milkshake plus a coffee!
But, we finally arrive at the water cache. Gallons of water are stacked up, and chairs sit by the trees. We decide to stay.
We all cowboy camp, and I eat some ramen before heading off to bed. It’s still light outside and an airplane flies through the sky with its stream of smoke leaving a white streak in the sky. He goes straight through the moon.
I put in my earplugs and close my eyes as the sun goes to sleep. One day closer to Wrightwood!
The Wonderland Journal 
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