I caught another sunrise this morning, which made me happy. Usually we are tucked away in the mountains, which blocks our view of both sunrises and sunsets, but not today. At least the day started off well.
Sunrise from just outside the tent. I love the sun so much and I always rejoice when it hits the tent
The rest of the day was… well, the views are still phenomenal, so at least we have that. But honestly, today wasn’t one of my better days. For one thing, I’m still exhausted from yesterday.
For another thing, the trail today was full of those same damn bushes that I fought with back on Day 44. At first it was simply a minor annoyance to walk through a patch that has overgrown onto the trail, but I got more and more annoyed with them as the day progressed. They are everywhere, they have completely encroached the trail, and they are the worst. Every time you walk through them they scratch your legs and grab onto your pack and snag your poles, not to mention how much they slow you down. Worse, even when you carefully and slowly walk through them, a rogue branch always finds a way to scratch you. It’s infuriating. My absolute favorite is when there is mud and/or water on the trail but because of the terrible overgrown bushes you can’t even walk around (unless you want to get scratched up and entangled even more).
By the end of the day, I was so sick of hiking through the damn bushes (and of hiking in general) that I was crying tears of frustration and pain every time I was forced to walk through them (I was getting scratched on my legs in the same places over and over and over). We walked through those shitty bushes a lot, which should tell you all you need to know about my day. Those bushes are like my personal version of hell at this point.
When I got to camp, Nick played Victorious by Wolf Mother for me because he could tell I had a rough day (crying IS a pretty obvious sign). I sat on a rock, listened to the song, observed the amazing view, and managed to get a handle on myself.
the view from the campsite I enjoyed while I got a handle on myself
Here are some other nice views of the mountains I tried to enjoy throughout the day despite my shitty attitude towards the bushes and even towards hiking (like I said, today wasn’t one of my better days - I think I need a day off.)
Even though we camped near Sunny D and Puddles and a group of 3 guys last night, we didn’t see anyone all day. This is probably for the best since I was having such a rough go, but still, it’s a little weird.
Along the trail:
Camp:
