Miles hiked: 23.6
Mile marker: 478.3
It’s a good thing Dad saw me packing my sleeping bag the other day at lunch after I dried it out in the sun.
“Let me see it,” he said, and proceeded to knee on my packed sleeping bag with his whole weight on top of it.
This morning I use that same method. When he first showed me how to pack my sleeping bag, he said to knee on it. FaceTime calls don’t always create the best classroom for thru-hike preparation.
My things are exploded worse than they’ve ever been before. A bigger tent means more space for a mess! After pressing my sleeping mat out into thirds to get the air out, I flatten it out again and roll it up tightly. Not bad! Probably my best yet at getting the air out.
I go to roll up my tent — in a self-made fashion, since I know little of what I’m doing — when Dad comes over to help me. His tent packing skills are professional. His packing of my tent is half the size of what I’ve been doing.
We sit around the picnic table as we eat our breakfast — mine including half a burger with a slightly frozen egg, cold fries, a honey bun, a banana, and a cup of coffee.
Farmer John is rushing around this morning, so I fill up the toilet paper in the bathrooms for him. He did ask me to let him know if it got low.
“My stomach does not feel great,” Savannah says.
“Those nachos got to everyone,” I say. “I’m not feeling too hot either.”
7:00 AM was our leave time. However, it’s past that time and we’re all weighing in our packs.
Did I already mention that my food bag weighs 13 lbs? Yikes.
My pack weighs 36 lbs with 2.5 liters of water. Can you guess Dad’s weight? Same as mine, except he has 4.7 liters of water!
It’s nearly 8 o’clock when we get going. Dad, Lucie, and Savannah walk on.
“Why does everyone always leave me when I’m still getting ready?” Bumper says loudly. “I wait for everyone!”
“We’re right here, Bumper,” I say. Rafiki and I are right behind him.
“Oh,” Bumper says. “You guys don’t count.”
We start to walk away as Bumper is throwing his pack over his shoulders.
“See, you guys are leaving me, too!”
Oh, Bumper.
We catch up with the others and wave goodbye to Farmer John.
Our first mile is a road walk. I chat with Savannah for a while, about how we went to college in great areas, but in our youth we didn’t realize how cool of a place we were in. We talk about our grandparents. I tell her about my older friend Louise, who is in her 70’s, a woman who I admire.
In our society, it is common for people to let their circumstances define the outcome of their life. My friend Louise is so full of joy. She is widowed, without children, and lives an incredibly rich life full of friends, family, theater, water aerobics, choirs, bible studies — she is such an active woman who is living life to the fullest.
That is how I want to be when I’m her age.
We step on trail. Here, we begin a very long ascent.
I’m pushing for it, though. It’s easy for me to crawl on these hills, but I’m trying to keep moving forward and push through the laziness that wants to take over.
The sun is out and it’s hot. I’m sweating into my eyes, something that’s only happened to me a few times on trail.
Dad gets ahead. It’s quite hot, but about nine miles in, we reach the water source. Dad is sitting with some of the others. The flies are swarming around us. I fill my water from a little pipe in the ground and enjoy a snack.
Savannah, Lucie, and I all attempt at some push ups.
“We should do push ups at lunch,” Lucie says.
I had the same thought.
We’re a little tuckered at lunch time, though.
“I have a trail name for you,” Dad says to Lucie. “Siren, since everyone follows you and now are taking two showers a day. Or Deluxe, since you take so many showers.”
“I really want a trail name,” Lucie says. “You should call me Deluxe! Yes! Or Luxury! Luxy Lucie! Yes, that is my name!”
We all laugh, and I say, “You just gave yourself trail name!”
We throw on our packs and keep going. Not even a mile later and we find a lunch spot. It has water and a ton of beach chairs. We pile into the shaded area. Rafiki shares his gummy worms with us. I share the gross Bimbo pound cake I got the other day. At least it’s gone now.
Back on trail, it’s hot and there is a slight uphill walk. We press on. The path has been the same all day: a sandy path bordered by scrubby bushes. It winds around and around some hills. On and on we go.
Lucie, Rafiki, and I catch the others at a dirt road crossing. We sit for a few minutes. The flies are horrendous. Dad killed 45 of them while he was here!
Seven miles left! Rafiki, Lucie, and I fall back again. My feet hurt. My legs are tired. My bag feels like it’s holding cement.
I chat with Lucie about what the Czech Republic is like. The three of us talk about favorite foods — Lucie’s is lasagna.
3.6 miles to go. I’m so tired now. The sun is going down a bit so it’s not as hot.
.7 miles to go. Almost there!
We can see the fire station!
We reach it at last!! I rinse off my filthy legs and cook up a pot of beans and rice, which need salt. It sends me straight to the bathroom to dig my first cat hole in the dark.
I set up next to Lucie, Savannah, and Bumper to cowboy camp. Actually, it was just Savannah laid out first. While she was gone, the rest of us piled next to her so she came back to her bed surrounded by ours!
Today was tough. I haven’t had this hard a day since my first couple of weeks on trail. We’ll be leaving at 5:30 AM tomorrow, so time for some shut-eye!
The Wonderland Journal 
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