We woke at 7, and I was still very tired . We headed for the continental breakfast in the lobby where we saw a couple of fellow hikers eating. Josh says he said a brief hello and they said hello back but all I caught was a long look up and down. Like the kind of look you get when you're sizing someone up. It made me feel weird and coupled with being super tired I had a bad thought pattern for most of the morning.
As we ate, the small lobby filled with hikers and their appetites. Josh and I finished up and went to the Circle K to try and resupply. The pickings were slim and we inadvertently over bought on snacky, crap food to compensate. Back in the room I called my mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day in case I didn't have service on Sunday and talking to her made me homesick.
We split up our food for the carry and organized our packs. I decided it was time to part with the little Easter Bunny I found on the side of HWY 74 Easter weekend when Josh and I were road walking to Idyllwild. I wrote a note asking another hiker to take him further down the trail and wrapped it around him with a rubber band. I posted it to Instagram and Facebook and I hope someone will take him along. I think it would be cool to see his travels!
As we left the hotel the hiker who I felt was sizing us up said goodbye and we talked briefly, which made me realize I'm a bit paranoid over this social interaction stuff. Maybe my brain chemistry is changing and my antidepressants are whacking me out. Who knows, but my head space was a little better after that encounter.
We walked the road back to the trail and passed under
I-15 which was really kind of cool! We would pass under a few tunnels today before we started THE CLIMB. The trail rose out of the pass steeply at first and Josh stopped to take pictures of the freight trains for his friend Robert before we gave the trail all we had.
I can't really tell you much about this section except that we stopped a few times, once to eat the Subway sandwich josh packed out and where I got ants all over my backpack,once to fix my socks and cool my feet, for some reason they were on fire today! Once to camel up at a water cache and sign the register and once to put Desitin on my back for this new and wonderful prickly heat rash thing I've got going on. The rest of the time I was in a sort of transcendental meditation thing. Without consciously doing so, I imagined myself at the beach and every time the breeze hit my sweaty face it was my other self diving into the water. Then it shifted and I imagined being wrapped up like a burrito in my red blanket at home in my dark and cold bedroom snuggling my cats. I imagined myself in a Volkswagen bus driving the coast on a perfect summer day watching a pod of dolphins breach in the kelp beds. These thoughts were woven together like lace over the fabric of my breathing. My feet made a rhythmic crunch crunch crunch crunch and over top of that was my breath in, in, ouuut... in, in, ouuut... Huh, huh, hooooo crunch crunch huh, huh, hooooo crunch crunch. My legs felt strong and long, I felt like I was walking really tall. Everything was hurting but everything was solid, for miles of uphill. Until my tranquility, if you could call it that, was dashed by a grove of poodle dog bush.
I remembered then that I had read on the water report that we should take a detour to avoid this. Oops.
I tried to scrunch myself together and shimmy thru, over and around the poisonous plant but after over a mile of playing dodge ball I'm sure I touched it at some point with some part of my body or gear. Time will tell! After the dog bush dance the trail let out on a service road and I ripped my pack off and plopped down on my sleeping pad. I needed a break. It was a half mile to the next tent site and another site was a mile away. We set out intending to go to the further site but when we came across the small and sheltered site at a half a mile I made the call.
We set up the tent and I finally got an accurate picture of my water situation. I had a liter in my bladder and a liter in a bottle and I was freakin' thirsty. Josh had two and a half liters. We have about 7 miles to the next water so we aren't going to die but we are going to be pretty thirsty when we arrive. Live and learn. We ate no cook foods, obviously, and joked about what we could eat that would make us the thirstiest. I ate fig newtons for the most part because those suckers are heavy. Eat the heavy food first!
Right now it's 9pm and Josh and I have cleaned our feet and legs in hope of mitigating poodle dog bush although, I'm sure it won't make a difference. We are discussing how thirsty we are and have just finished the last of our rationed water. Tomorrow we hike out with a liter and hope for the best.
Until then, goodnight!
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