I wake at 5:30 to help with breakfast; Mama T shoos me back to sleep. I wake at 6:30; again, I’m shooed back to bed. So I lounge and I write until I can stay down no more, and I come just in time to eat pancakes and then do dishes. And then the day is my oyster. My relaxing, nothing-to-do-unless-I’m-asked oyster. Continue reading
I’m up at 3:30, take my time about getting packed and I’m still ready to go by 4:05. It’s still super dark, darker than it was when I went to bed, or so it seems, but that’s the fun of pre-dawn “light”, or so I’m told. It’s always darkest before the dawn, or whatnot. Continue reading
I wake early, for just long enough to take a picture of the sunrise – but it’s too early to be up on a nero, so it’s back to sleep for me. However long that lasts with 40 other people camped nearby. Continue reading
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 feel marginally better in the morning, but I’m not taking any chances. I take 800mg of ibuprofen – anything else doesn’t even take the edge off – and pray I don’t have any incidents. Soon enough, Sasha and I are off and on our way.
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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Brown Girl on the NST 