The Wonderland Journal

Miles hiked: 25.8

Mile marker: 1251.5

Total ascent: 3000

Total descent: 6,300

I’m so dead this morning that I’m mid-dream when my alarm goes off. Fortunately, I made my coffee drink last night, so it doesn’t take me too long to get ready. 

The sky is again a beautiful sleepy gray-blue before the sun fully wakes up and turns the world yellow. 

The tree-covered mountains are in the distance under moody clouds. 

I walk alone for a while and think about sewing clothes and what outfits I might make when I get home. 

I fly to our lunch spot and go down a steep hill for some water. When I return, Rafiki is here. 

“Lunch here?” I ask. 

“Sure!” he says. “We’ll have to wait for the others to get water, too.”

I lay down in a tent site on the dirt under a tree. I hear Bumper’s familiar stomps coming down the trail. 

He’s above me now. I haven’t opened my eyes. “Hi Tails,” he says. “Hi Tails.” He draws out his words. 

I pretend to be asleep. 

Once everyone has arrived, we have an extensive conversation about our plan for the next few days. 

We need to get to Belden at noon in two days. They open then, so we can’t get there too early. 

Then we have 45 miles to Chester. We need to get there Friday by 4pm for the post office. 

We continue on our hike. Luxy isn’t feeling the best. She’s tired and it’s very hot outside, which is tough for everyone. 

We keep on down the dirt path through a burn zone, where trees are naked from a fire that happened not too long ago. 

We reach our next water source. It’s another 500 foot hike down. The water is flowing from a small rock wall. Trees are down everywhere, making it hard to step over masses of leaves. 

Luxy joins Rafiki and me. 

“I’m going to walk the road so I don’t have to go across all of the fallen trees,” she says. 

Rafiki and I choose to stay on the path. I’m not and my feet hurt. At least I’m not in as much pain as I was last night!

We soon get on the purple line — the road on the map colored purple. There are a lot of fallen trees to step over. 

We walk down the road for a mile or so. We have a snack, since six more miles is the plan. 

We continue on. Luxy got ahead of us somehow, but we hike through the dusty paths for a few more miles. I’m rationing my snacks, too. I want to eat all of them but I don’t have enough for that!

We reach a bridge that overlooks rushing water. We join Bumper and Luxy. 

“How did you get here so fast?” I ask Luxy. 

“I thought you guys were ahead, so I rushed!” 

She’s been here a long time!

We decide to stay here for the night. My toes and legs are black from the hike. I look like I crawled through a coal mine, so I get in the river for a well deserved rinse!

Soon we have dinner. Rafiki puts chili oil in his Mac n cheese and is nearly crying at the spice level. 

I’m sitting on a rock, and realize from the sticky residue on my backside that there is sap on the rock. 

Uh-oh. 

As soon as I stand, I feel something is wrong. 

I just glued my butt cheeks together.