Miles hiked: 9.4
Mile marker: 1719.2
Total ascent: 700 ft
Total descent: 2800 ft
It’s dark as I pack my bag. I’m on concrete floor next to a stone wall, groping around for my headlamp as I try to be quiet as to not wake the two other hikers who aren’t apart of my tramily.
Fortunately there’s a privy here! I use it, swiping a delicate spider from my cheek. Poor guy. I watch as he struggles to stand on the cold and dirty floor. I think I may have injured him.
I know he’s just a bug, but I feel bad nonetheless.
We start the hike. .3 miles up the road then to the trail. Voyager has left already. She doesn’t feel well still.
The next ten miles includes a long downhill hike. Voyager’s stomach is cramping, so Rafiki and I hang back for a while to keep her company. We’re wondering if she ate something bad that’s causing all this mess.
Rafiki also doesn’t feel well. He thinks it may be something in his diet that’s upsetting his stomach.
I listen to my new book, now that I’ve finished the first two Harry Potter books.
This book is called The Lost Children by Shirley Dickson. It’s about a pair of twin children during World War II who get sent to the country side of England to get away from the bombs in their city.
I’m quite enjoying it.
So much so that my foolish self doesn’t look at the map to see that my destination, Callahan’s Lodge, is a blue blaze. That means that I missed my turnoff. I was wondering where Rafiki was! I was right in his heels!
The traffic from the highway is so loud below that my brain is overwhelmed by the stimulation.
I get to the highway and look around for Rafiki and Bumper. They’re not here!
That’s when I pull up my map and realize I should have turned a mile ago!
I feel so stupid! How could I have missed that.
Rafiki is calling.
“Hello?”
“Hey. Where you at?”
“I missed the turn off.”
“We figured. We’re all at the railroad tracks.”
“I’ll take the road there.”
“We’ll see you at the lodge.”
The good news is that the road meets close to the railroad tracks. I begin to run. Two breaths in, one out. Two breaths in, one out.
I feel so stupid. How could I have missed that turn? I didn’t even think to look at it! I assumed it was the highway marker!
I’m even more frustrated that I’m frustrated about all of this!
About five minutes later I see Rafiki walking down the trail as I sprint up the road.
“Hey!” he says. “I forgot my hat and had to go back to get it, or else I’d be up ahead with the others.”
I still feel like such a fool for missing that turnoff.
We arrive at the lodge. Moments later I see a woman pull up in a car with a dog in her lap.
“That must be Puppy Momma,” I say. That’s the woman I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon texting while tripping on rocks to coordinate a ride.
We hop in her car and her little dog Sophie sits with Rafiki, Bumper, and me. She likes to be held with her paws up on the window sill.
Puppy Momma is a super sweet older lady and doesn’t except any money from us at all! That’s only happened once on trail from the trial angel who gave us donuts!
She drops us off at the bus station, where we discuss our next plan of action for the hike. I’m overstimulated and tired, so it’s very draining.
Rafiki, Bumper and I grab some Hawaiian food at Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe. I get a massive amount of rice, teriyaki chicken, and macaroni salad.
We meet Voyager at REI. I need new shorts, a fuel can, and socks. I end up also buying some energy gels that are on sale. My purple shorts are too big. Plus, I stitched the waist so they fit better. Now when I squat to pee with my pack on, I have to do a narrow squat with 30-40 pounds on my back.
Let me just say that my hips hurt.
And I buy something I’m embarrassed to admit.
“I hate that I’m joining the Fanny pack club,” I say to Rafiki.
Him, Luxy, and Bumper all wear them!
“My justification is that I carry a 45 liter pack, and my food is bursting out of it.”
Fortunately I get it for half off! Now I can walk around town and not have my phone pulling my shirt or shorts much lower than they should sit.
I explain this to the young woman, Cameron, at the check out register.
“I’m sorry,” I continue. “You must get a lot of dazed hikers.”
She’s very friendly and genuine. “You’re all good! We do get a lot of them!”
I spend way too much time sorting through the half off energy gels until I pick what I want.
We stop into Trader Joe’s, where I get some coconuts strips that are AMAZING, then beckon everyone to get out of there so we can move on with our day.
We then go to Walmart. My feet hurt in these shower sandals. It takes a long time to get everything for 10 days. We will be shipping a box to Diamond lake.
Walmart takes way too long. It’s hard to find everything and also think about ten days of food plus food for this weekend.
I’m pretty done with this day. I just want to lay down. We order an Uber. Voyager goes to Winco and the rest to the Airbnb.
The Air BnB has a broken gate, a bathroom door that we keep closed by shoving the dustpan under the door, and an arctic cold living room and sauna bedrooms.
At least we got early check in!
I make a pizza with mushroom for dinner. I should do my other chores, but I am exhausted! I lay on my bed, unable to get up. I just feel so mentally drained.
The guys stay up for a movie, so I join in on that while dozing until I finally decide it’s time for bed.
I am very, very tired.
Leave a comment