Day 44 05/08 Familiar Faces

 I wish all readers happy holidays and a very Merry Christmas! Now that my bout with the flu is done, I can get this post up. Like I said, the story must be told, so I'm picking up as best I can where I left off!

...Continued from Day 43 "Deathmarch" ( Posted June)

Mileage: 23.7
Camp: 558.3

I slept three hours and woke up at 6:30am. I hadn't unpacked last night or even taken out my sleeping bag, I crashed right on the trail. I don't think Dan was awake yet. I would have heard him walking by.
I folded up my mat and continued on.
Not even a quarter mile into the day I came to the water source I'd been pushing to last night. There was a little bridge and a concrete shed and the spigot. I got excited. With this much man-made construction, it must be maintained pretty often!
Wrong.

I found the beautifully clean and rust free spigot next to the shed. It was famous for not being turned on this early in the season. I'd heard conflicting reports on whether or not it was.
It wasn't.
I searched around for a lever to turn it on, sometimes there is and you get lucky, but i found nothing but a big padlock keeping me from what i'm pretty sure activated the spigot.
Damn.
I'd be a little thirsty for a few more hours through the desert, but like I always say:
Will I be comfortable?
Probably not.
Will I live?
Yes.
Good thing I did the hot roadwalk at night.

Luckily it was just hot and not sweltering as it was mostly uphill through the dry wind farms. The trail gradually made its way towards a big V cut in the mountains in the distance, the only obvious access point into the next range.
I could care less about the climb, I was ready to get up above the arid desert floor.

Right before it hit the mountains, the trail dropped down into a steep canyon that hid a nice little rushing creek where I sat for a half an hour and took a break. I actually put music on, not through my earbuds but on speaker! It felt so odd to hear music aloud, I hadn't in so long.
I felt victorious knowing that I had finally caught up with Dan and was probably right behind Joe so I took my sweet time and laid out a sign made of rocks signaling Dan that I had been here and the time I came through.
I figured it was probably a waste of time and he would be coming over the top of the canyon any minute. Sure enough as soon as I sat back down on my extended victory break a lonely silhoutte crested the top of the canyon.
Dan the Iceman.:)

I yell up to him and he sees me and waves. The anticipation of seeing my buddy again, or any familiar face kills me as he makes his way down to the little creek. Im trying not to act like im excited, but I am.
He crosses the creek and we shake hands, both wearing big stupid grins. It's a happy reunion. He can't beleive I caught up. I ask about Joe. Dan's not sure where he camped, but I've been on the hunt for a week and been thinking about this all night. I'm pretty sure he camped near this water, he couldn't be more than a couple miles ahead of us.

Turns out he wasn't, but I wouldn't catch him til that night. Dan and I pushed near 24 miles to hitch into Mojave, and I was running on three hours sleep. After convincing my aching, incredulous feet to carry me the last ten miles to the highway, Dan and I stuck out our thumbs. We were ecstatic to have made it well before sundown. Pizza, junk food and Joe were just ahead.

We stood there and watched the cars pass us by. They were few and far between. Soon the sun was going down and we were concerned we weren't gonna get a ride.
Nobody was picking us up.

Joe texts us, he's at the Motel 6, he says he'll see us there. Damn that guy is good! I swear Joe is the master of hitching. After all, he's hitched over 30,000 miles in his lifetime and across the states several times, but he had only barely beat us to the highway! How did he get picked up so quick?

Finally after what seems like eternity we get a ride into town. Dan and I split a room, and Joe comes over.
Im grateful to finally have caught up with them after these insane last two days. Joe is astonished that I did. The feeling I have is an incredible one.
 I can't believe im here in the same room with Joe and Dan again after separating at the Cajon Pass, and even though it had been a dream of mine to hike the San Gabriel's alone, I'm grateful to be back with my buddies. These guys are quickly becoming like brothers to me.
I'm laying in my bed dreaming of rest and my zero tommorrow after 60 miles with a three hour nap when Joe breaks the news that he's leaving the trail.

What?
I knew that he would have to leave the trail eventually, he had mentioned before that he would be leaving twice, once to surprise his wife for their wedding anniversary and once for a family reunion, but so soon?
Right after I fought to catch him, to create the A-team to tackle the Sierra's with Dan and I? This larger than life figure, who had become both an inspiration and a role model was here for this moment but would soon be gone again?

He wouldn't be zeroing with us tommorrow, but instead heading out early to get as far as he could before he had to hitch out and catch a train north to Washington.
We said our goodbyes and Joe went back to his room to sort his resupply and get ready for the morning.

Dan and I weren't ready for bed, we were in a motel 6 :) (might as well have been the Four Seasons, that's how it felt to us) and we had a TV and a plethora of junk food from the store.
I'm pretty sure we left the TV on all night.
It wasn't hard to fall asleep, but one of my favorite phrases kept running through my mind as I drifted off...
The trail never ceases to surprise.
Except this time the surprise wasn't  so good.
How bittersweet...I worked so hard to catch these two only to have to say goodbye again?
At least the Iceman wasn't going anywhere.
He was knocked out in the other bed, still sitting up, drink can in hand. :)

Dear Anonymous,

Three months back.

 And still when I’m asked what it was like, I open my mouth and have no words. A thousand scenes play through my head as I search for a way to put it into a sentence and I settle for  “amazing,”  or “life changing.”

2668 miles.

I was fine the whole ride home, more than fine, I felt great! I’d just finished the trip of a lifetime, easily the coolest thing I’d ever done. Confident as hell, I stepped off the train in L.A. to see my parents and girlfriend waiting in anticipation, huddled together and craning their necks to find me in the crowd. I was immediately overcome with an insane sensation only possibly described as emotion the second I saw their faces.

1400.1 miles

yosemite

path of a glacier

the one and only yeti

mile marker

Liane on ascent to muir pass

niko on a special misson

I talk about the hike to people when they ask, and sometimes when they don’t :) It seems that few people I know can truly understand what a thru hike could be like and I can only tell so many stories before I tempt my family to announce another ”BACK on The TRAAIIIL” joke in an old man voice.

But i'm finding normal life isn't as satisfying anymore. Instead I’m having flashbacks, at work or in traffic, triggered by a phrase or a picture and suddenly im spinning back to some creek in the woods or some vista in the grand mountain ranges the trip crossed.

I know others are, too. I get two word texts in the middle of the night.

Lone Pine.

South Lake.

An awesome couple of days in a desert town or an unpredictable side trip to escape the Sierras in search of more food, two words bring me back to any moment so vividly I can almost feel the sweat on my skin, the pack hugging my body.

The trail underneath my feet.

Frozen lake

Once in a lifetime sunset, Northern Washington

mile marker

Wow.

Me and my 165 mile partner Giant Slingshot

My mind races to the next adventure, whether it’s a thru hike or not. I’d do it again if I could, in a heartbeat. It felt like five years of life in six months, every day completely new and foreign and challenging. I never really understood it before when I read  “you are always in the present on the trail.”

But now I do.

If someone told me to be ready to go tomorrow morning with my bag packed, we’re headed for the Mexican border, I would. I’d do it all again.

Mostly I go to work, try and figure out a way to save money again and re-assimilate back into normal society where water comes out of a tap and your day isn’t planned around it. I keep a lot of the memories to myself so I don’t talk my family to death, which I’m convinced is possible.

view west from the knife's edge

However like those texts, anonymous comments come in the middle of the night that let me know I am not off the hook.

The story must be told.

"O CANADA" Slingshot Challenge!!!

Mile
2200


Dan and I are taking a break by a spring at mile 2163 when we see this stick, (or rather a small dead tree) sticking up out of the ground like an upside down Y.
I joke about making it into a giant "ultralight" slingshot and carrying it to Canada and firing it at the border. Dan dares me $200 to do it.
Dan Is serious when he bets. He didn't think I would.
I snapped the dead tree in half and slung it over my shoulder.
502 miles to go!
The way I figure it, I was unemployed before. Now I make .40 cents a mile! :)


Right now the 8lb hunk of wood has made it 37 miles. Most thru hikers are betting against me, that my beloved ultralight slingshot won't make it to Canada.
What do you think?
Bet me 10 cents a mile I can't carry this thing 500 miles.
I'm betting I can. :)

Still Going! Update!

Hey guys,

I have not had any data service for quite some time, and my Dad is posting this note for me.  My time in the towns is basically for resupply, showers, laundry, and few calls home.  I am in Oregon approaching the 2000 mile mark.  I plan to be done sometime in September.   I have been writing all along the way and will update the rest of the Blog when I get home.  I will also reach out to all of you who have supported me along the way!  I can't wait to see you all or catch up with you over the internet!

Alex

Day 43 05/07 Deathmarch

Mileage: 37.8
Camp: 534.6

I woke up around nine o'clock, in no rush. Seems like I always get the best sleep once the sun comes up.
I broke camp and hunted down that water tank. It wasn't in the bushes or just off the trail, I ended up having to go up one of those OHV roads and turn down another. I lifted the steel plate lid off and filled up with three liters. I made sure I used the steripen this time; I'd read of mice and squirrels falling in this one.
The water had an off taste to it, but it's what I had. Can't be picky in the desert.
I hit 500 after a few miles and there was actually a sign this time!
I was kind of sad I didn't have to make one out of rocks.
Finally the trail started to descend!
Down, down, down I went all afternoon until finally I hit the flats. The trail almost disappeared into picturesque fields of wild grasses. Sometimes I just had to head the general direction I knew I was going.
I got to the Hikertown Hostel at mile 518.4 just after 6:00pm. This would have been a great place to end the day, but this is where I believed Dan and Joe's day began.
Plus I had skipped the Anderson's to catch up with them. I couldn't stop now.
I walked inside the gate and rang the bell like the sign said. No one came out. I filled up my water reservoir at the spigot and continued on.
The sun began to set as I got to the aqueduct. Thank God. That meant I got to walk dirt roads for the next 20 miles or so. Normally, that would mean you'd bake alive and you'd be cursing it. But for me it would be night. That meant a wide, stone-free path, generally even flat.
I walked until well after dark. I sat against the giant iron aqueduct pipe (the only wind shelter) and cooked my dinner. I had a guest, a beggar kangaroo rat that stayed just out of the light from my headlamp but never more than a yard away.
Soon I was walking again.
The moon came up, an hour later than normal. It gradually went from orange to white as it rose higher in the sky.
I walked. And walked. And walked some more.
I'd always wondered how far I could go in a day.. How long I could hike.
Tonight I'd get to put myself to the test.
Everything takes on a sinister costume in the night- a tree or a bush can look like a person or a piece of rope a snake. I even came up on some cows in the middle of the night and couldn't tell what they were until I was right on the other side of a fence and they were staring me in the face.
They seemed just as surprised to see me.
Hours went by and I continued on. I finally began to see the giant wind turbines above me. Every once in a while a breeze would blow and one of the giant blades would turn and let out a metallic groan that would catch me off guard and echo for miles.
At 2:30am I passed what looked like a bag of trash in the bushes on the side of the road.
I had a weird feeling, so I turned on my headlamp (I'd been hiking without it to save battery) to see.
I jumped. It was a body!
Finally I had caught Dan.
Cocooned in his black mummy bag he was sound asleep. I was so ready to quit for the night but I didn't wanna wake him up and scare the hell out of him at two thirty in the morning so I kept walking. My feet screamed at me to stop. Every step made them throb and ache in pain but I kept going. I was almost to a small bridge where there was supposed to be a water spigot when I heard a pack of coyotes screaming and crying up ahead.
It made my blood run cold.
Any of you who ever grew up with coyotes or had them around your neighborhood know the horrible sound of them catching their prey. One two of them isn't bad. They'll run from you. But five or six of them? They can take down a deer. They're vicious in a pack.
I could hear them just around the corner ahead. At least five or more, screaming and howling. They'd definitely caught something and were in a frenzy. I didn't wanna walk into that, so at 3:30am I laid down my mat a quarter mile short of my goal and knocked out. I was happy with how far I'd come.
The water would have to wait til morning.
If it was even there.

Day 42 05/06 Hot Hot Hills

Mileage: 20.8
Camp: 496.8

Man it was hot today. I woke up sweating. I had made camp right on the trail up on the side of a mountain. I was fully exposed in the sunlight so I packed up and ate while on the move.
Eventually the trail ascended into more wooded area and I had a little shade. I was cooling off and moving at a pretty good pace when I walked around a corner and nearly had a heart attack. Some animal- some thing- was in the bushes. Something I didn't recognize. For half a second it scared me, it was like a gnome or something.
As soon as I could see it clearly it was obvious it was a doll.
A creepy ass doll.
Who would hide it in the bushes?
I saw a ton of tracks today. I see deer tracks a lot now, and so don't take many pictures of them, but the mountain lion tracks are still pretty impressive.
I actually met someone restocking a water cache today! What is the timing of that! Kind of cool that I got to thank them in person. Thanks Kimberly Powell Flores! If there was no water there, that section would have been horrible.
I hiked again until about nine o'clock. I came to the intersection of four dirt OHV roads high in the mountains after dark.
It was pretty windy, just windy enough that I was having second thoughts about cowboy camping. There was nowhere up here to tuck out of the wind.
There was supposed to be a big concrete fire tank up here with water, but I couldn't find it anywhere. It was way too dark. It would have to wait til morning, I had enough to last til then.
I set up my tent and was staring at the stars. I hadn't been there three minutes when one of the biggest spiders I've ever seen crawls up the mesh on my tent and over my face.
Inches away.
It had to be a tarantula but it kind of looked like the wolf spiders we used to have back in Tenneseee when I was a kid.
I roll to get my camera and turn back and the thing is GONE. I hurriedly checked the zippers on my tent to make sure they were closed. I definitely had no regrets on setting up my tent tonight.
God, I wonder what crawls on me when I don't?
I don't wanna know.

Tommorrow, I'm thinking about going for it. Going all out. Try to catch Joe and Dan.
Dan had a day on me, Joe more than two. Now, according to the registers they're only a day ahead.
I think it's possible.
Tommorrow, deathmarch.