Miles hiked: 27.7
Mile marker: 1816
Total ascent: 3800 ft
Total descent: 3400 ft
They’re in my shoes. In my pack. On my sandals.
I’m glad these giant ants don’t bite.
It’s a chilly morning. The foot of my sleeping bag is wet. I closed my vestibules last night because it was a bit windy and cold. Now everything is pretty damp.
I wear my blue fleece for the next 5.5 miles. Rafiki and Voyager stop a couple miles before me to take off their sweaters. I spend the next bit of time walking alone and praying.
I’ve been trying to be better about praying out here. For some, it’s easy to connect with God in this beautiful place that He created.
For me, I find every step painful for my feet and wondering when I’m going to get to the next water source. The views are nice.
I truly wish I could say that the former is my experience. Instead, I’ve committed myself to this journey and am now wondering what on earth compelled me to come here.
Was it my desire? Did God call me to this? Did I make up in my head all the reasons I should come out here?
Or does God actually have His hand over me as I walk this dusty path? I feel like He does. I had the means, fitness, and mental fortitude to begin this journey.
Only now, I wonder what I came here for. The things I expected to learn, I haven’t. I’ve also learned some things I didn’t expect to learn.
I was hoping to truly like hiking by now.
But I don’t.
Maybe in Washington I will.
So I pray about all this. Plus, I’ve no idea what I’m going to do after trail. I had some ideas previously, but now I feel like I could do anything. The only thing is that I don’t know what the right direction is.
I listen to some of 1 Kings in the Bible. I gained from it that God really doesn’t like it when his people worship other gods.
And also, it was a bad thing when King David slept with Bathsheba, but the Bible made it sound like the really bad thing was when he had Uriah killed.
We lunch at water with frogs jumping around. I’m quite exhausted by this point. As usual, the time flies by.
My feet hurt from walking on rocks. Sometimes we get to a smooth dirt path, but it doesn’t last long before more gray chunks of rock make their way onto the trail.
The blowdowns are BAD. I’m climbing over a fallen tree every thirty seconds, or going around them.
I listen to my Neil Gaiman book as I walk. It’s pretty weird, but that’s Neil Gaiman for you.
I snack on the way to camp and brush my teeth. I’m going to skip dinner. Not the wisest, I know, but we’re going to a restaurant tomorrow and I just want to get some good sleep tonight.
At last, we reach our camping spot!
Then, Rafiki says, “I think we should keep going. This site is really sloped. Are you sure this is where the comment said the spots were?”
The comments on FarOut said that there were some good camp sites at mile 1816. We’re at 1817.9.
We find the flatter sites!
We throw tents up. I’m in bed and Rafiki and Voyager go to look at a wild pink sunset. I kind of wish I’d gone to see it too, but I’m cozy in my sleeping bag and ready to fall asleep soon.
Smoke makes for some awesome pink sunsets, and we’re near fires.
I finish up my nightly duties and drift off to sleep.
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