Got up this morning and did some first aid on my feet. They are starting to get that nasty look. Lots of Leuko tape on my toes. My ass and pits are stanky, and I'm caked in dried sweat. This camp has a water source but it's way the hell down a steep canyon covered in poison oak. The thought of climbing down there to get 5 liters of water which I have to carry 15 miles is slightly annoying. I buck up and do it.
The desert down below. In a few days, I should be on the other side of it and over those mountains in the distance.
I hiked most of the day with Ten Gallon and Shades. The trail snaked along the ridge of a mountain most of the day, with sweeping views of the Mojave desert. There are hundreds of wind turbines on the desert valley floor, paired with massive solar farms. Pretty cool seeing where all the cap and trade money is going.
Passing mile 500. But I didn't ACTUALLY hike these 😎
I made plans to stay in Mojave for a few days for memorial weekend. I'm going to try and push big mikes tomorrow so I can make it by the end of the weekend.
In the afternoon, I hiked mostly solo and finally ran into Ten Gallon and his lost crew at Horse Camp. They seem really nice and I decided to tag along with them for a couple more miles to make tomorrow's hike down into the valley slightly shorter. His crew includes Mowgly from Costa Rica, Speck from Connecticut, and Space Jam from Sonoma. Today ended up totaling 17 miles! Still no pain! We all cowboy camped and shot the shit for a while before going to bed. It was windy all night.
Speck (left), Spacejam (right)
I'm starting to go through interesting transitions emotionally. I notice that I'm a lot more emotional, but not in a bad way. I'm just feeling a lot of feels. Missing my peeps, feeling happy and grateful, frustration, excitement, fatigue, etc. it's all balled into one. When the world moves around you at 2.5 mph you have so much more you need to process.
