Day 34 - Facing Fears and Windy Hiking

The sunrise was hidden behind the hills this morning, with puffy clouds covering half the sky.  I ate my oatmeal from my sleeping pad, eating off the side so any spilled food would land on the ground.  While we packed up our stuff, the puffy clouds disappated to nothing.  This seemed like a sign of a hot day to me.  Matt thought it was going to be windy.

Almost immediately after we started, there was a little creek.  It had some standing water, but it was running.  I got water from a running part.

We hiked easy again today, taking breaks.  The trail was pretty easy for the most part, no big ups or downs.  Matt and Tanya took a break for breakfast at the Deep Creek Ford and I ate more food.  I'm getting tired of all my food, but I don't know what I actually do want to eat.  I know these applesauce in a pouch things are good, I ate three today.  I don't feel like eating salty or hot things right now, but that seems to be the majority of my food.  I could go for a cucumber right now.  We talked to guy named Dr Feel Good, who got the stomach flu before Big Bear.  Its really making its way south down the trail.


I went to dig a cathole, but there are no good spots here.  There woods with a myriad of trails winding between a dirt road and the creek, no places are out of sight completely.  I found a spot off a trail that seemed unlikely to have people pass by.  Midway through, a couple walked upon me, said sorry when they realized what I was doing.  I said sorry too.  I just didn't know what to do, so I kept crouching there.  Oh man, that's one of my recurring nightmares, pooping in front of people.  It happened.  It wasn't that bad.

I guess I'm tackling all my fears today, because Deep Creek Ford had a small log crossing.  I hate balancing on small logs.  Lots of small logs were piled up together to make a bridge of sorts.  It was not very stable on the first end.  I used my poles for balance, but some of the logs wanted to roll.  It was very awkward.  At one point, I ended up leaning forward so much that I was on all fours.  Damn it, logs, get your shit together.

I made it across though!  It was a big feat for me.

There were some really beautiful places to stop after the crossing.  Gorgeous shady beaches by the creek.  We kept hiking because we had just had our break.

The trail went through into a burnt area and started climbing.  We ran into a day hiker who was really nice.  She said the area burnt a year and a half ago.  There was lots of wind, at times it was trying to blow us off the mountain.  Lunch was at a little creek with minimal shade and space to stop.  Not a great spot, but I was hungry.
As we walked, Matt and I joked about Ancient Aliens; there had been a marathon on the History channel one of the days we were sick.  We started to find some alian looking plants, growing in a line.  It could only be... aliens!  Tanya was going, not you, too.  Haha.

We took another break at the next water source (near the line of orange alien plants).  As I went into the bushes to relieve myself, I found the burnt remains of... an alien child.  I brought them back to Matt and Tanya for examination.  (Yeah, it was a deer leg bone.)

I was so tired, I laid down in the sand while Tanya called her mom.  Sand naps are great.

It wasn't​ far to a couple of campsites.  I felt so tired, I was yawning while I walked.  The first site was on a ridge with no protection from the wind, and it was blowing.  No thanks.  There was another near a tiny stream, where we decided to camp.  Matt and Tanya were going to try cowboy camping.  As we made dinner, it suddenly started raining, so we all scrambled to set up tents.

We hiked 11 miles today, and it felt like a full day to me.  Yes, we started later and stopped sooner than before the illness hit us, but it was just as tiring.  I'm glad to have company in the slow miles of building back my strength.  It's 7:30, the sun hasn't set yet, but I'm ready to sleep.

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