Day 10: Time For A Little R&R

May 20th, 2021

Mile Marker: 207

Miles Hiked Today: 17

Since Planner and I were at camp early both of us were tucked into bed early around 8 pm and asleep around 9. Thankfully I was able to sleep through most of the night as the trees provided shelter from the wind.

We woke up around 5:30 am and packed our bags to head the 15 miles down the mountain. My foot felt okay and we decided that we couldn’t make any decision until we were down the mountain anyways, so I taped up my feet and we were off.

It was a jaw dropping hike down.

It was crazy to feel the heat as we hiked lower in elevation. That desert sun beating down on us made us realize what we had gone through just a few days ago. It also felt like we were in another world again after being up so high and looking down on the towns far away.

We also crossed over 200 miles!!

During the hike down Planner and I had decided that we would go ahead and head into town for the night and possibly take a zero day just to make sure my feet could recover. It was smarter for us to take care of it now than let it get any worse.

Almost immediately my spirits lifted knowing that we were going to have time to rest. Now all I needed to do was get down the mountain.

The wind was crazy on top of the mountain and also all the way down and in town. It helped keep us cool but would gust so hard we would have to hold onto our hats to keep them from falling off.

My favorite part though, was coming down to the bottom of the mountain and looking behind us and seeing the mountain in its entirety. How magnificent it was and now that we were finished, how beautiful it really was.

We finally reached the bottom where a water faucet was set up for us and started researching cheap hotels in the neighboring towns.

We decided on one in Palm Springs and hiked on the trail down the road to a connecting road where we could, get this… request an Uber to come pick us up!! Crazy no?!

While we were walking down the road, both feeling happy we were getting out to rest and I suddenly stopped in my tracks and put my arm out asking Planner

“Is that a snake?!”

She replied yes! And she let me know that it was a rattlesnake! 😳

Both of us had been thinking that we were surprised we hadn’t seen one and now here was one in the middle of the road. (Hard to see in pic)

We could see it’s tail flapping but couldn’t hear anything since it was so windy. I had questioned if it was dead but regardless we both slowly back tracked and then went extremely far around to the left. And once we were a little bit past it, it actually started moving and slithering to the other side.

Both of us went ballistic and were so happy that we still gave it a lot of space even though we didn’t know if it was alive or not. Whewy.

We then arrived at a different road and were picked up by an Uber and arrived at our hotel. Both of us were extremely hungry and ordered some comfort food… pizza.

We both demolished the whole thing. The hiker hunger is starting to creep in on us. We then spent the evening resting and making sure my blisters were cleaned and elevated our legs. After a while we restocked on our supplies and got tucked into bed early.

We both have decided to take a zero day tomorrow and could not be more pumped for it. Mentally and physically it’ll do nothing but good for us!

I already feel so much better and I know resting tomorrow will be great for my blisters.

Sometimes we need breaks and that’s okay. 🤗

Iz and Oz