When I woke up at Lake Morena I was extremely disoriented, mostly because our tent was roasting in the oven sun, but also because I had a brief moment of panic "WHAT AM I DOING OUT HERE". But then I remembered - I'm waking on the morning of the second day of a million mile walk. And I'm sticky.
Had a SHOWER at the campground. I never knew a gross public shower could be enjoyed so thoroughly. I was in heaven. And this is only day 2....
Promptly made coffee (photo down below) and was in high spirits, even though Trader Joes instant coffee packets taste like burnt popcorn. I thought it was the BEST idea because it comes with cream and sugar in the packet!! And I need both of those things in order to enjoy coffee. I will give it a second chance though, because I had previously eaten garlic olive oil cous cous in the same pot. I realize now - I need a seperate "cup" for coffee/drinks, rather than using the same pot for EVERYYYYTTTHHINNNGGG. It's already multi-flavored...
We met some other thru-hikers this morning that had just rolled in from the Hauser Creek climb.... They were beat. We loitered around until about 1:00pm, resting, cleaning, organizing, and stretching. Wound up taking a lot of breaks, every 2 miles or so, to dry out our feet and socks. Our bodies needed a slow easy day today considering the hell we put them through the day before. We hung out under a highway bridge for a while.... Passed under a few roads, the area surprisingly creepy. Ate "lunch" at Boulder Oaks Campground (which, at the time, was a completely deserted horse camp). finally found a decent camp at dusk, just in time for a sunset over a distant freeway, which was eerily beautiful, in a strange way.
Other tidbits:
WILDFLOWERS
Are in bloom!!! In the desert! The yucca! The plant with a presence.
HIKING ON ROCKS & GRAVEL
means that you have rocks and gravel in your socks, and shoes (even if you are wearing gaiters) and also they get in your backpack, which is enraging because you try do hard to keep your backpack as light as possible. Also - they get in your underwear apparently.
DESERT HEAT
Doesn't seem to bother me as much as I thought it would, at least not in an obvious way? It definitely makes a heavy backpack feel like you're carrying a full grown man. We have sunburnt body parts but nothing too severe. My calves are burnt (weird right?) and my hands.
SAN DIEGO WATER
has a particular taste that has been hard for me to get used to. Salinity!? Salt water!? What are we dealing with here... I'm dying to know what makes it taste so horrible.
With an easy 8 miles under our belts, we will be fresh to go tomorrow morning. Waking at 6:30am. TYPING ON AN IPHONE IS HARD. As you have probably noticed, all of my posts are a day behind. this is because service is spotty andI usually dont have energy to tap tap tap at my iphone when i crawl into the sleeping bag at night - so i compose it the next day! i will see how it all works out.
6 comments:
Claire,
I LOVE your pictures and the blog! It is great to see your surroundings and what the trail, your daily path looks like. I pictured the path to be much wider! And I wondered about coffee and forgot to ask you. And the pot...WOW, I hadn't thought about what it would be like to cook everything in one pot that I am sure you cannot wash or rinse. So sorry about the rocks in your, well everything! Miss you back here at home and am having a difficult time thinking, really, I won't see you until September or early October? Our weather this week is great, it seems Spring might really be here :) Be Safe On The Trail and Enjoy the Adventure!!! Kristene
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rocks in underwear... these tidbits.
who is the lizard??? he is in ben's pictures. comments appear to be disabled there.
thank you for this in depth post.
Brian Martinez-portland or---sorry about the underwear rocks!
Brian Martinez-portland or---this weekend at REI there is a sale on underwear rocks! Great job you three! Keep being safe and continue enjoying the wonders of being outdoors! It is hard typing on an i phone. I couldnt imagine typing with rocks in my underwear that would be harder.
Love the photos. Please continue sharing. Be safe. Have fun!
Not sure if it's the culprit, but San Diego does fluoridate their drinking water. Bleh.
Post a Comment