I wake late, I’m happy to laze a bit today – I’m still not at 100%. I’ve been texting with Dr?No on and off for a few days now – he’s offered to slackpack Sasha and I on the 20-mile official endangered species detour – but I’m really not feeling this do 20 to skip 4, what with my stomach all a-flutter, and he’s come all the way from LA. We’re meeting him at 8:30. I’m worried about what he’ll say.
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There’s a moment of disorientation as I wake to the sound of relative silence, before I realize where I am. Wrightwood, Reuben and Rachel’s. 7:30. I feel good, I feel strong, ready to hike.
I leave my earplugs out so I can listen for bears overnight , but it seems they’re off doing other bear things. So it’s just me and Rich and the RV folks, sleeping in. Continue reading
Tanya comes in late, sets up by the light of her headlamp; I’m not bothered by it. I sleep like a baby, even without earplugs – my tent’s pitched just right, and I don’t mind the wind or the tossing and turning of my spotmates. Both remind me that I’m not alone.
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More crazy-vivid dreams, about a “The Departed” style man-who-is-me inside the mob attempting to evade detection. My alarm goes off, I snooze it, and I switch perspectives; I’m the mob boss’s daughter now, and having been put in a room with other “traitors” and told only one is leaving, I find a key and let everyone go and berate my mob boss father for doing what he does. My alarm goes off again before I reap any consequences. Continue reading
There’s only one thing on my mind when I open my eyes this moring: HOT SPRIIIIIIIIIIIINGSSSSSSSSSS. Gon get those two miles done. Gon get my soak on. Gon do that. Packity pack-pack, then soakity soak-soak. Awww. Yisss. Continue reading
It takes forever to get to sleep between the wind and the cold, though I’m fine once I warm up. I’m up on and off again through the night, though, to drink an entire liter of water and adjust my body when certain parts get too warm or cold, too far away from the happy temperature in the center of the bag.
I wake at 5am to frost all over everything, and immediately go back to sleep.
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I actually sleep okay on the tiny couch, having alternately put my legs up and stretch them out as necessary through the evening to keep comfortable. Still, I’m up early – normal hiker time, 5:30 – but not a creature is stirring in the house, so I doze for a little, then sit up and write. Might as well be productive. The brave souls who slept outside are hankering to get in, but respectful of everyone’s sleep.
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The wind howls and makes my sleep fitful – I’m up several times just to watch the tent bow over onto my legs. Nothing to be done about it at this juncture, so I roll over, again and again, until the sun rises and it’s time to go.
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I have the most vivid dreams – about bollywood marriages and impromptu a capella battles and chasing down a kid who stole another kid’s stuff and parkouring like a boss and almost getting shot in the stomach for my trouble1. I wake shortly after that bit, breathing quick – and muscles aching from yesterday.
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Brown Girl on the NST 