Day 97: Up, Down, Vampire Deer

Miles hiked: 27.3

Mile marker: 1636

Total ascent: 5,000 ft

Total descent: 5,000 ft

The morning comes too soon, after a restless night of sleep where I woke every couple of hours. The dusty dark blue mountains bleed into burgundy to blood orange to tangerine.

It’s a still and warm morning, with no airflow. After a couple of miles, we walk into a cold pocket next to our water source. I pull down my sleeves and zip up my shirt.

I’ve never felt the warmth of a well worn and paper thin shirt more than I have on this trip.

The terrain is rocky. Voyager, Rafiki, and I are all slow on these. The other two don’t have the strongest knees, so downhill isn’t their strength. I’m opposite. I fly downhill. They are strong uphill. But rocks? No thank you. Tripping every other step only frustrates me.

The day grows hot. We pass a sparkling lake from above. White rock appears in the distance. Rafiki rolls oddly on his ankle.

“I’m okay,” he says. But his stale expression tells me otherwise.

I step down a beige dirt path bordered by yellow and burgundy flowers.

Five miles to lunch from the creek! We begin the hike, and soon I’m going on a really steep incline, breaths strong and heavy in my chest as I heave my body up the hill.

Unfortunately, this creek has no shade. We’re walking on a dirt path on very slopey and brushy terrain. No shade here.

I haul myself up another half mile.

“How about here?” I offer, after Voyager and I have thrown out at least five lunch options. We settled onto a sloped rock with shade.

Rafiki’s feet are hurting. He has two blisters on his toes — this may have something to do with the fact that he switched from toe socks to regular socks because he hated tucking his toes away every time he put on socks.

“I’m nauseous,” Rafiki says after he’s all patched up. He finally popped the blisters, which isn’t exactly what you want to do on trail, but his feet were hurting and it was necessary.

He lays back. I make guacamole and Voyager makes hummus. We help Rafiki as much as we can.

When we get back on the trail, it’s 4:30 pm. We hike up into some random red rocks. The ground gives way beneath Rafiki’s foot and I hear a THUMP!

I turn around and see Rafiki on the ground. Poor guy! Today’s not his day!

The sun sets ahead of us as we walk through the fields. The mountains are hazy and blue and point to a sleepy sun.

We finally reach camp. Here, I watch out for the vampire deer. Their eyes glow red when you look at them. Sure enough, as I brush my teeth, two does and two bucks wander around me. The bucks have at least two velvety racks each!

The horizon is a brilliant orange. I can see the sunset through the trees. A moment later though, and the sky has lightened to a much paler version of what it was.

I slip into bed and find that the deer are now licking the ground where I just used the restroom.