Day 39: 650 Miles

Miles hiked: 21.3

Mile marker: 666.3

Last night I was terrorized by a ghost.

I knew I’d have to go to the bathroom because in my parched state last night, I drank so much water.

I put way too much seasoning in my dinner. This led to me drinking a liter of water.

Back to the ghost.

It’s nearly 10:30 PM. I go back and forth in my head for a while about where or not I should go to the bathroom.

I’d be dumb not to go.

I frantically grope around the edge of Savannah’s sleeping bag until I find my headlamp. I turn the setting on the low red light.

As I wiggle out of my bag, my sleeping pad crinkles relentlessly. I shove my thickly-socked feet into my sandals and hobble to my backpack for my kula cloth. Everywhere I look I see faces highlighted in red light! I look down and see Bumper’s pale face under my pack.

I hobble out the door and down the wobbly steps. The wind blows wildly in my ears — particularly the one that doesn’t have the ear plug in it.

Something rustles and sounds like wings flapping.

That can’t be a coyote!

The door to the privy opens and closes with a slow creeeeaaaaaak. Thunk!

Creeeeaaaaaak. Thunk!

I see a ribbon of plastic whipping in the wind and hung from a tree. I use the bathroom five feet from the ominous creaking. The wind blows wildly as the creepy noises continue their song behind me.

I stand up and run into the cabin! Upon my entrance, Lucie is crouched down underneath the backpacks that are hanging like animals waiting to be butchered. She’s on all fours, looking up at me with wide-open eyes.

I clip my kula cloth back to my pack as Lucie crawls underneath the packs like Gollum. Bumper awakes, thinking it’s time to get up. Everyone else begins to shuffle.

Oh no. I just woke up the whole cabin.

I hop into bed, which crinkles madly as I wiggle underneath my sleeping quilt. I’m shaking with silent laughter as everyone turns on their sleeping mats.

I am so sorry for waking you all.

4:15 AM hits and we begin packing. I rolled around for what seemed like most of the night. Packing in the cabin is tough. There’s a lot of other stuff around that isn’t ours, so it may be easy to forget something.

We prepare our breakfast drinks inside.

“Journey said he left at 3:30 and will meet us at Walker Pass,” Lucie says.

I was rushing like a madman for nothing! I wonder if Dad couldn’t sleep.

We hit the road. I have to use the bathroom so everyone walks on. It’s still pretty dark outside. I walk quickly down the washed road and soon break into a run. I don’t want to miss the turn to the trail!

I catch them and soon am walking in line. Bumper is leading the group at a very fast pace, much more than my feet want to handle at the moment. They’re quite stiff after the long rest.

The trees are silhouetted in the orange sky. The mountains to the left are every shade of light blue while the sunrise to the right glows above the tree line.

Even though it’s windy, I’m already getting warm. We walk into the trees, small desert shrubs bordering the path. The shadows of the trees are cast over the sand.

I miss Dad already! I know that I’d be fine hiking alone, but I’ve really gotten used to having him with me on trail. The thought of hiking the trail without him is so sad!

It’s only eight miles to Walker Pass.

We reach a road and check the log book before the descent. It reads, “Journey, 0545.” Dad has been here a while! It’s 7:45 now. We walk down the hard sand to a pile of water jugs. I’m peering down at the shelter to see if Dad is there. This is our water cache.

Dad comes walking up the hill and sits down on his mat.

“Dad!” I say. “I missed you!” I wrap my arms around him, relieved to have him back!

“It was so windy that my tent literally moved me! And I lost two socks in the wind and my shoes were outside of my vestibule,” Dad says. “I got just a couple of hours of sleep.”

That’s not good!

We continue the hike. It’s an immediate 3.5 mile hike uphill. It’s sandy and rocky, and towards the top it gets even steeper. I step aside to let the others pass. The sun shines brightly. I don’t have much energy today! Plus, I forgot to put a beef stick in my waist belt pocket for easy access.

The wall next to us is full of green shrubs and rock. We continue on the ledge. The mountains open up and I can see the solar panels across the way, looking like black skylights that go into a floor.

We finally pause. I climb up in a rock and nestle in. I’m so tired. Dad is somewhere else, but the rest of us hang here for a few minutes, gazing at the structures that look like sand dunes with green cotton balls scattered over it.

Dad comes around the corner. “I was waiting for you guys to cross that ridge!” he says. We didn’t even know we passed him! We were so tired we didn’t continue on.

I get up and continue on the hike. We’re all ready for lunch by this point. Dad finds us a somewhat suitable spot on the side of the path. It will do. Our legs stretch across the trail and look over the ledge.

I’m exhausted. We plop down and have lunch. We’re thinking to extend our stay out here by half a day, so people pool their resources and give them to Dad. He is truly exhausted because he only got about two hours of broken sleep last night.

I fall asleep on my mat, and Rafiki sleeps for longer than me. I know because he was snoring.

People cross us, and we’re rudely in the path. But we’ve been walking on this ridge for miles and there wasn’t a rest area!

We get moving. The path finishes uphill and we head down. The path turns to rocks and scree fields. The wall, the path, the cliffs are all rocks! Walking on them is tough because you have to think about every step you take carefully! And it hurts my feet!

The ridge seems to go on forever. It finally turns into the trees. We reach the creek! Dad is exhausted and prepares a coffee after lying down. We refill water here and rinse off our dirty legs.

Savannah and I put our heads together and find a spot that will be good to camp tonight. We plan for tomorrow as well.

It’s a 1.6 mile walk to the campsite. We walk out of the woods and onto the sandy path. The last little bit is an extensive uphill. The sun shines brightly in the early evening. Sweat beads on my face.

.4 miles.

Finally! We arrive! There is a little alcove in the trees. I let Dad camp in here after he’s been kicked out of his spot the past couple of days.

My fuel can runs out. Savannah lets me use hers! It is Lucie’s old can, but I’m grateful. We set up camp and eat dinner. Lucie still isn’t feeling well. We give her some medicine.

The rest of us do a solid two push-ups and talk about exercises for a while. Getting into camp early is nice! Soon we’re in bed, ready for sleep! The sun sets over the ridge. About fifteen little birds fly to the tree next to me before flying off again.

Another night of cowboy camping!