The train is my alarm in the morning – the earplugs do nothing to block against its screeching, and while I try to go back to sleep, my alarm is having none of it. Most people are still asleep – a lot of folks are taking a zero at the KOA to use the pool and generally let loose while not under the auspices of a trail angel – but Sasha and I are trying to beat the heat for the last 10 miles into Agua Dulce. So it’s up and filling water bottles and enjoying another trip to the flush toilet before heading out the way I came in and hitting the trail once more. Continue reading →

Sasha and I are some of the first ones up; Spaceman, set up near my feet, is gazing blankly up at the sky. Well, it is early, I think. The heat’s going to get rough today – it’s warm out already – so the sooner we get going, the sooner we get to the North Fork Ranger Station, where we’ll take our siesta. Continue reading →

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.
Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.
Continue reading →

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.
Continue reading →