DAY 11: THE LONGEST MILE

What a nice nap that was.

The moon rose with the light of 25 car headlights at 1:00am, waking me from my 3 hour nap. Something had been busy behind my head, squeaking and bustling, also making it difficult to fall asleep. Also - there was wind. This is very ferocious wind, sweeping sand onto your face in the night. Second night of "cowboy camping", a decision made mostly because we would be catching 4 hours of sleep, at most.

2:00am - Bens alarm goes off.
2:20am - Begin hiking the 10 mile stretch to our "hide from the sun and rest all day while the heat passes" location.

It was a windy slope walk, one side plummeting down to the left (sometimes VERY dramatically) and the other side rising steeply to the right. Moon walking. With the help of the moon we were able to cover 10 miles before 7:30am.

Made it to the Third Gate Water Cache! We searched for our individual shady hiding spots where we would sleep. Apparently we are trying out the noc. shift of hiking, which is really disorienting. Our circadian rhythms are all messed up, which probably isn't helping our bodies with the pain management task.

After hunting for the perfect napping location (no cacti, no poop, no pee, un-slanted, shady enough, not in barbed wire) I took a few micro-naps. It took me about an hour, after changing locations 5 times, to settle in the best spot. The suns trajectory has to be factored in to the decision because the shade moves, leaving you to wake up burning in the sun (Which happened).

The cacti have changed - their needles becoming the size and shape of large safety pins, as opposed to teeny teeny needles. I have unfortunately been finding them in the worst ways possible (brushing the sand to level it out for cooking/getting them stuck in my leg)...

At 6:00pm we resumed our trek in the (still) hot heat. Only 9 more miles tonight.

It's insane how much the landscape can change within a 20 mike stretch - ecosystems morphing with every mile.

At our 8:30pm dinner break, the landscape, and weather, changed dramatically. Suddenly, there were clouds, freezing temperatures and wind. Just like that. We could see out breath! A few hour prior, we had been sweating in the suffocating heat of the burnt desert.

We hiked faster... We put on all of our layers, shuffling along at a very fast, hobbling pace. As fast as our tired feet would take us.

My feet haven't hurt this bad, yet. Excruciating. I will go into further details later, give a little door update, as they are not doing well.

OH YEAH, we reached mile 100 in the dark! Does not make for a fantastic photo.