Day 36: My Longest Day: 27.6 Miles

Miles hiked: 27.6

Mile marker: 594.1

I should not have stayed up so late chatting with everyone. My alarm pulls me out of my sleep. I grope around the mess on my nightstand until I find my phone and silence the noise. I plop back down on my pillow, willing the time to have been incorrect.

Lucie is already in the shower. She was up at 4:45 this morning. I roll out of bed and begin the noisy process of packing my bag.

I wish I could be quicker at packing. Perhaps I could prepare things at night, but honestly I’m just really tired at the end of the day.

Savannah is getting up at 5:45. She kindly informed me that I am a blanket hog — which is true. I used another blanket last night to mitigate this issue. However, Socks turned the AC to 68 degrees. Me being next to the unit, I was quite cold. Savannah, on the other hand, was hot.

I brush my teeth with Lucie in the little alcove of a bathroom sink. I return to the room and am asked to turn the lamp off. Sorry girl. I gotta pack.

It seems as if Lucie and I would be good roommates with our early wake up times and cold nature and Savannah and Socks would be good roommates due to their late wake up times and hot natures.

I will not sleep next to the AC unit next time.

At breakfast, I make a waffle that turns out fluffy and perfect. Dad’s is burnt. Whoops. I probably should have given him better instructions.

“Do you have the fourth room key?” Lucie asks as she passes me.

“No, I don’t,” I respond

A beefy guy in a 12 person van rolls up. We toss our stuff in the back and pile in. He and his wife have five kids and like to do a lot of camping, so he got a van for that.

Soon we start hiking. Two miles flat and along a road. Six miles uphill. I definitely thought the elevation was going to be bad, but it’s been alright! The wind is blowing heavily at times and cools me down. The clouds look like bird feathers.

We make it up the hill and wait for Lucie. Her knee isn’t having any issues!

“I’m taking small steps so I don’t overextend my knee,” she says.

We keep walking. It’s rocky here. The big rocks have what looks like orange and green paint splatter.

We all break for a few minutes under a tree. I sit on a tree branch with Rafiki. He shares a song from Woodkid with me. It sounds oriental with orchestra music. It’s deep and calm, something slightly unsettling but also peaceful. It crescendos. I like it.

We keep moving. I get split from the crowd. I nearly fall as my foot slips on soft dirt. My trekking pole is wedged into the ground and my hand is on a rock and holding me in a suspended backwards plank above the ground. Does it count as a fall if my back doesn’t touch the earth?

The path turns to dirt road. I check my app to make sure I’m on the right path. I follow the road for miles and miles. The windmills above me sound like the drone of medical equipment.

I text Dad to make sure I’m on the right path. I am.

I finally spot everyone sitting under a tree. “Journey’s planning on 27 miles today,” someone says.

What!? I should have looked at the map yesterday.

We have four miles to lunch, so we keep walking. I walk it without music. Good. I still got the silence in me.

The path is bordered by a wall with puffs of scrub bushes that look like the came out of a Dr. Seuss book. Dead trees are flopped over and stiffly laying on their sides. As I round the corner, yuccas stick up out of the ground everywhere, looking like a birthday cake for a teenager with way too many candles.

It’s breezy under the trees by the water source. I eat my leftover curry out of a ziplock bag. Yum! Soon I’m dozing off.

“Eleven miles good, Kate?” Dad asks.

I sit up and nod. Sure. I can do it. I try to fall asleep again to no avail. Soon I’m up and trying to find a cat hole. I have to keep climbing higher and higher onto a steep slope. Getting down is even harder as I slip and slide on the rocks.

As I approach the group, Lucie sees me nearly slip on the loose dirt. We both laugh as no one else noticed this.

We all get ready to go. Rafiki stays for a nap.

As we hit a dirt road, Socks is standing in the middle of the path.

“This is the first snake I’ve seen on trail!”

she says. The snake is waiting in some splotches of grass.

“I think we’re in his way,” Dad says. We walk around the snake and keep moving. The rattle snake was only a couple of feet long and relatively thin.

We spread out as we walk and I spend the first five or six miles or so in silence. Just me and my thoughts about what it would be like to live in France.

Dad and Savannah catch up with me. I suspect my feet will start hurting three miles before the tent site.

Sure enough, four miles before we get there and my hamstrings are tight.

The wind blows wildly around some of the passes. It switches to rocky terrain. I forgot how much I hated walking on rocks.

I’m behind now and going uphill for a mile or so. I keep checking my FarOut app to see where the tent site is.

I finally find it! There are a ton of people here. I set up next to Bumper after scouting the area for a more shielded spot.

I eat bagged salad for dinner. Very good! I need to pack out the bacon avocado ranch salad more often. Luxy Lucie joins and sets up next to me. She finds the key card from the hotel in her fanny pack! And she thought it was me who had it!

I’m still kind of hungry so I eat a Bobo PBJ. This was my biggest mile day in my whole life and I’m EXHAUSTED.

We’re all lined up like a pan of enchiladas when Rafiki marches by.

“Rafiki!” we say. “There’s space next to Lucie! Come on over!”

“I’m good. I just had a coffee, so I’m going to keep walking.”

“Are you sure? There’s room!” Lucie says.

Rafiki is wearing his headlamp around his neck with the red light on. It’s dark out now.

“I’m sure! I’ll see you guys later.”

I lay back and gaze up at the stars. They are spread across the sky, everywhere and every size.

My bed feels so comfortable. I let it swallow me as I watch for shooting stars. A slight breeze slides under my quilt, so I wiggle a little until the opening disappears.

Bedtime for Bozo!