Monday, May 4, 2015

Day 19 - mile 230.0 to 246.4 - 16.4 miles, climb out of the desert

Woke up at 0400 and started hiking at 0515. Finally getting our shite together!!! Yay hiking in the dark. Best thing ever when you know how hot it might get. Nice walking on a gradual uphill. Uphill feels much better on the blisters, though they continue to get bigger. Lots of ibuprofen keeps us going. We stop for water, and see Thermometer. He tries to give me a thermometer. Oh, so that's how he got his name. I smiled and refused, which I'm sure hurt his feelings, and is probably a culturally awful thing to do, but hey, I don't want to carry it! Sheesh. Talked to our new trail friends Bree and Juicy for a bit, kept going on up, nice PCT grade trail. Finally break out of the desert hellscape and back into the high desert mountain pine trees. We took a brief break to sit on a nice log in the shade. I was looking at the trees thinking how much I really liked them, and thinking about how happy I was, when KABLAMMO! A bee out of nowhere stung me in the back of the arm! I was screaming 'cause it hurt and because they were still buzzing around me, Grant just kept eating his snack. Thermometer who was also there, looked away, and then finally moved away. (Cultural not to offer help?) He was clearly embarrassed or confused by my shenanagins. Right, Grant continued to eat his snack. "Grant, could you grab my coat, I want to cover up" Chew, chew, chew. "Grant, seriously, grab my coat, or your coat, any coat" chew chew chew. "Grant, could you dig out the Benadryl" his reply " here's some Ibuprofen" BENADRYL MY GOD HELP ME PLEASE!!! Of course, it wasn't all that dramatic, but my mother and brother are both deathly allergic to bees, and I have pretty big reactions, so I carry Epi pens with me just in case, because any one of my next stings could be death for me. It didn't come to that, but it's like, really? I can't be happy you stupid trail? Of course I am happy, but after feeling stuck in the desert for days, finally breaking free, I had to be stung by a bee? Sigh, keep on trucking. No hives for me, but I told everybody I saw about the bee attack. Two other women had been stung too. Particuraly nasty strain of bees in that area, I guess, and they hate the ladies.
Took a nap at the next water source, a spring dripping out of the hillside with a large barrel catching it underneath. Lots of bees there of course. Met some more people, then started hiking again, nice walking in out of trees and into the sagebrush. Finally camped up by a dirt road just below Coon Creek Cabin group campground, at mile 246.4 around 6:30 that night. Other people rolled in a camped up too. Farmer had dinner with us, so that was fun to finally camp with other people and actually be social. Sleepy time! G'night

pictures on instagram

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