Start: 0700 - Snow Canyon Road faucet
End: 1830 - Whitewater Preserve
Miles (today) - 13 (12.5 PCT, 0.5 off)
Miles (cumulative) - 227 (201.5 PCT, 23 alternate, 2.5 off)
It is SO NICE to wake up and be warm! The morning routine (starting with simply getting out of the sleeping bag) is so much easier to manage when you're not freezing. What's not-so-nice is dealing with more house sale issues. Here's some advice: Don't try to conduct stressful business over the phone while you hike - you'll miss a trail marker indicating a turn and find yourself a bit off-trail. :)
a cute sign - we're currently going to Ziggy and the Bear
It was a short 5 miles to another trail angel house, Ziggy and the Bear. These people are amazing, like all the trail Angels we've met thus far. You can ship your resupply boxes to them, you can shower, you can do laundry, you can recharge your devices, you can hang out, you can even camp overnight. Nick and I did all of the above except camp. I have a lot of paying it forward to do!!!
Much to my surprise and delight, Megan was there! We hadn't seen her since Warner Springs and I had been wondering how she was doing. I was so thrilled to catch up with her! Her trail name is now Ducky, after the dinosaur in The Land Before Time. We exchanged info so we can stay in touch on the trail.
We left Ziggy and the Bear around 1400 with the goal of hiking another 12 miles. The desert had different plans, though. The heat was pretty intense (still not complaining!), there was no shade whatsoever, and the trail was loose sand (so walking took a lot more effort than usual). Plus, as we had just resupplied for 4 days, our packs were full of heavy food again. It was slow going. To make matters worse, a gust of wind caught Nick's umbrella and snapped one of the inside arms - Nick was not happy (the umbrella is his favorite piece of gear).
When we saw a sign for "water and shade" less than 2 hours later, we decided water and shade sounded like a great idea (so so grateful for the wind farm people for thinking of us hikers). During our little break, Nick "MacGyver'ed the shit" (his words) out of his umbrella with duct tape and got it to work again.
Nick fixing his broken umbrella with duct tape
We stopped at the wind farm for some much needed water and shade
This afternoon I 'walked' with two of my favorite fitness instructors, Bridget and Stefanie. The trail was rough - the uphills were very steep - so I did some interval training to get me through it. I'd walk 100 steps and take a 30 second break, over and over and over and over. I pretended I was simply taking a fitness class at Gold's Gym and that Stefanie and Bridget were cheering me on. It worked!
the view along the trail - if you look closely you'll see another hiker on the trail
Oooh, we made it to section C!
By 1800 I was completely exhausted. Happily, Nick had bumped into NTN - NTN said that staying at Whitewater Preserve was worth the 0.5 miles off-trail, so here we are. Alec (the guy with the knee issue) also found his way here. He said he attempted to hike the alternate route, hated it, and is now walking back to Ziggy and the Bear to take a shuttle to Big Bear.
a view of the mountain from our campsite at Whitewater
the peaceful camping area at Whitewater
Alec also said he has been calling Nick "Man Hands" - I think this is a much better trail name than "Sparkles", which is what people were calling him at Ziggys. Not sure if he is going to accept either one, though. :)
Tonight's excitement is dealing with a pretty darn bold raccoon. We were warned about him but didn't realize how aggressive he would be! He's come right up to the tent and tried to get into our packs several times already. He's like the honey badger- he doesn't give a shit. Now all our stuff is in the tent with us and we have hiking poles sticking out of the sides of the tent to shoo him away with. LOL
Hopefully tomorrow my bee-stung hand will be better - it's very swollen and very itchy right now!!!
my right hand is very, very swollen (and very, very itchy)
another wonderful note from Mary - I love it!