100 MILES IN

DAY 5-Over 21 miles today! Not because I was trying to crush miles and get up to my daily average just yet...nope, just motivated to get to a spot where I knew there would be friendly familiar faces to camp by. That and water. So apparently all I will need to motivate me for mileage is fear. The funniest part of it was that when I arrived at the picturesque campsite at sundown none of my new friends were there, so disappointing. Then an hour or so later I spotted headlamps coming over the hill, three of them showed up, sweet relief. Since I'd been carrying so much water(too much, say 15lbs or so of it...) I didn't need to stop at the water sources off trail that day and just hiked right past everyone without realizing it. I was nearly running for the last two hours to set up camp before sundown. Multiple funny lessons for me to think about today. All ended well with hot coco shared with friends and a solid sound sleep that night.

DAY 6-Hiked to a highway point and hitched into the town of Julian for water(otherwise it would've been another 18+ without a source). Lovely little town with friendly interesting and interested people. Free pie at a place called Mom's(free lemonade for this girl). Got good stories from both of the men that hitched me in and out of town, it's a big world out there and good to hear all the different ways there are to live it. Went to a campground to stay for the night and then wait out the day tomorrow. 96 degrees before ten am, uphill switchbacks without shade, not a lot of water to be had on trail. Heard two people got taken off trail already because of heat stroke, tomorrow I will night hike.

DAY 7-Spent the day resting my feet and waiting out the heat. I had woken up in the middle of the night last night because  my feet were throbbing from pain, I think mostly on account of my pack weight(which coming into this I thought I did a fine job with but now see many many others with base weights half as much as mine). At the camp store I enjoyed a fine feast of hard boiled eggs, avocado, and the best mango of my life(surely there must have been one that was superior from my Kauai days but this  was a shining star piece of fruit that I will remember as glorious). Sometime near six that evening I was back on the trail headed up hill. I though I would have to hike alone and was getting ready for whatever was coming my way(hopefully not rattlers) and then I ran into a fellow hiker and we shared the trail until about midnight when we decided to camp on a very windy high up open spot. My tent was not going up without getting blown away. As I'd woke up at six that morning I was tired by this point and spent about five minutes attempting the tent set up before cursing it all, getting out my sleeping bag and getting into my flat out tent as if it was a bivy. Probably I could've cowboy camped but the fatigue was convincing me that something wanted to crawl into my sleeping bag that night so I slept in a giant web of mesh instead. Seems that fear of rodents and snakes on my sleeping body ranks above claustrophobia. Ah the fears and the honesty...err...ridiculousness...it seems to be bringing out of me.

DAY 8-Hiked early to stay cool. Took siesta midday under my strategically sun blocking arranged Tyveck. Just laid right down in the dusty dirt beneath it. It's always so nice to be clean but so easily undone with the sweat of the work and the dust and dirt that swell up to catch it from each step forward here in the desert. Eventually you just lie down in it and rest. In the evening a night hike again. Everything is stunning when I stop to look at it and the moon is so full sharing it's reflection of light for me to enjoy these night hours on the trail.

DAY 9-Loved the scenery this morning. Open expanse of field with dry yellow grass and one winding trail, bunches of green bushes on the outskirts, blue hills in the distance and a sliver of a far off lake. There is a very light welcomed drizzle falling on us as we walk and the sounds of frogs in a nearby creek.
Got into Warner Springs midday and stop at the community center which is set up with a small resupply for hikers. They sell some goods, showers, and laundry service. There is a guitar available for anyone to use, it's right handed and missing a string, but I sneak it away out under a tree to do my best with it and am grateful for the small trying moment of music. I get a ride to the post office for my resupply. So excited to dig through my box of new delicious food and treats. Easy evening and unsure of plans for the next day.

DAY 10-My first zero day. Hiked no miles today. Just hung out, rested, made some phone calls, more guitar. Funny to think of all the times I wanted rest already on this trip and now that it's here I feel I should be back out on the trail, a strange thing. I've been happy to be here and grateful for the opportunity to follow through on a dream but it has been an interesting thing how strongly my emotions have been running all this time out here. For better and worse, it all seems intensified. I know myself well enough to know that it's just a part of who I am and have lived enough to know how to understand it all with perspective but it's still keeps striking me with surprise how everything is so amplified.

That's all for now. Time for sleep, tomorrow I'm back on the trail.