August 17th, 2024
Mile Marker: 1348.6
Miles Hiked: 31
What a long day!
We woke up around 6:20 AM, I finally got a good nights rest and woke up refreshed, thank goodness!
I made hot oatmeal and hot coffee to get the day rolling. We weren’t in too much of a rush today even though we knew it would probably get hot.
We set out around 7:35 and watched the sun come up. The trail was rolling hills with ease. We made it to the first water source after about 5 miles and saw Catmandu. It’s always surprising when he shows up because we know him and Just Mike had to do a ton of miles to catch back up to us.
We then had a 10ish mile water carry to get us to the next spring water source. It was still early but we could feel the heat. Today was going to be very hot. Whoops, maybe we should have left earlier.
The trail had us on back roads for the whole day. We passed by 2 NOBOs which is pretty shocking since most should be past this area but they let us know there is some Gatorade at the end of the hill at the road crossing. Trail Magic yay!
Journey and I split one since we knew there were many people behind us, it was warm but so tasty! Thank you trail angels!
When we were nearing our next water source we saw a ton of cows and some rather big bulls so we walked slowly and waved them off up a hill.
This was an oasis, there was cold water gushing out of this spring and we were in need of it just as the animals were I’m sure.
As we are sitting there refilling our bottles a bunch of wild horses come running down the side. I stood and watched them and then as I sat back down, I heard a noise coming from behind me and another horse is sprinting towards the group of horses but one of the group horses then runs towards it.
They start galloping towards us so I wave my hand and then they turn and head behind us and stop.
They kept getting their heads close to each other then making some shrieking noise and stopping. Not sure what was going on, but it was fascinating to observe.
Then the horse that belongs to the group goes back and the one outsider gets closer and closer to us, it was thirsty. I tried to talk calmly to it, letting it know it’s okay to come and drink and eventually it does.
I was just in awe at this beautiful creature. Oh how I wish I could befriend it.
After a rather long stay at the oasis, we continued on.
And I quickly realized we should have had lunch there. I could feel my blood sugar dropping and I had to watch how many bars I ate since we packed exactly 4 days of food for this trip. It was lunch time and no shade in sight.
We decided to pull out our umbrellas and crouch behind a sage bush to eat. I reminded myself to keep cool and not overreact to make it worse. But I was hot, my face felt flushed and I desperately wanted cold shade and cold water.
We sat for a while eating and then decided to get up, we needed to make it to the next water 6 miles away.
It was a painful 6 miles as it was hot and slow due to the sand. We would try to walk off to the sides if there was a cow path but sometimes there wasn’t so we walked slowly in the heavy sand, sinking with each step. GAH!
I got slower and slower each mile, this was zapping all my energy.
We then made it to the spring and cow pond. All the cows were near, it was too hot to go far from the water I assumed. We even had a small calf get friendly and come close to us, so cute!
We then also noticed a huge bull laying and breathing hard, when he got up and tried to walk, his limp was very obvious, his front left leg was injured. My heart hurt for this poor bull, it’s not likely that will get fixed.
We filled up water, chugged some water, made dinner, and headed out for another 1.7 to a reservoir.
Once we started walking we could see the storm clouds coming in from afar and started to have an overcast. It made me not want to swim once we arrived but I knew I needed to wash as much salt off as I could so I got into the lake for a second to scrub off. Journey did too, sept he likes to go in with all his close on to wash the clothes of salt too.
We didn’t dilly dally as we needed to move to try and get outside of the storms path.
We hiked fast and Journey, who has been struggling from chafing with his new shorts, decided to take off his shorts to dry them out while hiking. Meaning… he was hiking with only a shirt, backpack, and shoes, like Pooh bear. It was hilarious. But on this section, we can see for miles and miles so it would be obvious to know if someone was coming. At least that’s what we told ourselves.
We watched the storm get closer and started to get rained on but we kept moving. At one point we considered stopping to hide out as the lightning seemed close but then it started to stop as we continued east.
We moved fast, almost a pace I didn’t enjoy, goodness I hate rushing and not know exactly what to do to be safe but sometimes that’s what you get when in nature.
But I was happy we kept moving as we were getting out of the rain.
Around 6:30 we were in a clear path and decided to eat dinner. It tasted so good. I scarfed it all down within seconds it felt like. I feel more hungry on this trail than others, it’s a wild feeling.
By the time we finished Catmandu had hiked by and us three hiked together and chatted until the next water source.
The water source was a cache which we are so thankful for!! Or else this would have been another really long carry.
We then decided we would go another few miles before we set up camp. While doing so we got an incredible sunset! So pretty!
We found a flat sandy spot after 31 miles and decided to call it. We could likely go further like the others all doing a big day but that was never our goal.
So I’m snug and we got a good pitch, and I’m tired. 😴
Night night.
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 