13.8 miles hiked/Solo camp
-Saw about 17 hikers Ohhhh boy I am exhausted. I started to hurt by the 9th mile with my legs/hips so I’m a little worried about that. I really shouldn’t have pushed this hard. I definitely won’t do that again. Tomorrow will be 7 miles to Hikertown and then a ride to Tehachapi. I made it to mile 500 but I must have missed the mile marker because I didn’t see it…. A little underwhelming because of that. I dropped my pack half way and went packless (slackpack) to 500 and back so that made the day easier. Still… I’m in pain. I’ll have to take a double zero I think, at least a zero and a nero for sure though. I set up camp and almost went straight to bed after I did a little rehab. My legs and hips are incredibly sore tonight. Calves too. I definitely pushed it too hard. I know now I should stick between 8-10 miles for now. I think I will get a massage to get my hip unlocked again. Also the water source I’m at tastes sooo bad. And I’m out of my electrolytes to make it taste better... god damn
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10.2 miles hiked/ SOLO camp
-27 people going nobo Today started out pretty good. I woke up earlier and felt an urge to start hiking instead of my usual meh I can wait. I was excited to hit my 10 mile day. And of course to get to wee vill market for a burger haha. The day started uphill, but it wasn’t too bad. I actually didn’t listen to any music for the first 4 miles. First time since being on trail where I didn’t have music in my ears asap. After 6 miles hiked today it was boring. I wanted to be done. So flat and I could see for like a half mile straight… My feet still hurt around mile 5 which sucks, but at least it’s better than mile 2 like before. My calves were burning today though. I met someone on the trail who was following me on Instagram which is cool, she also blogs for the trek. I didn’t feel any hip pain until mile 8. My longest day without hip pain. I was pretty pumped about that. When I got to mile 9 I was so done. I came across a pretty good pump up song tho and I was dancing with my poles while hiking that last 1.2 miles and the song stayed on repeat. Any guesses to the song I was listening to? My last mile I was also without water as I drank it all because of the heat. When I arrived to the water source I threw my pack down and got my bottle and filter asap. I put the dirty water into my clean bottle and drank straight from the filter. I was so tired and thirsty that I couldn’t wait to filter it clean to my bottle. Figured I can buy another bottle at the market. Then some dude working gave me a berry smoothie while I was waiting for my ride to find his way to me. I needed that. Fruits. When my ride came I was so happy. The car was cool. I arrived at Wee Vill and immediately dropped my pack off and sat down with a dog I found. Mishka is her name. She’s a good girl husky. I hung out with her and her own daisy basically all day. I gave him and Mishka the rest of my burger that I couldn’t eat. My hiker hunger still isn’t here yet. But I do go through some bouts of hunger where I can eat like 1,000 calories at once and then nothing the next… very strange. I met up with an Instagram friend named Ellen (trail name Wayfinder) and we hung out for a good part of the day too. I decided I didn’t want to stay overnight here because there are just too many people around. I asked the store for a ride and they said that they could. First at 6… then 7… then 9…. then 9:30 It was a long day haha. I was at Wee Ville for 8 hours… but I had a drink with new friends, a burger, rosemary fries, deep fried pickles and some lemonade and apple juice. And I got to hang with a pupper and give her pets and melted cheese and she slept on Glow for a bit. I set up my tent around 10:15pm and basically went straight to sleep. 8.83 miles hiked / camp with about 7 other people
-35 people I saw hiking NOBO Today I woke up at 7am and got packed up by 8:30am to start hiking. It was a hard hike uphill, but the north bound hikers assured me there would be trail magic up ahead at the top of the hill so that kept me pushing. I made it up to the magic by 11ish and was greeted by an ice cold water bottle, a frozen capri sun and snacks. I got caught in the vortex and I stayed for almost 4 hours at the trail magic and left by 2:45pm. I met lots of NOBO’s and ate a sloppy joe for lunch. Yummmmmy The hike down was easy for the most part. But I fell once and twisted my ankle. It’s okay tho, I guess my strengthening exercises I did a bit for my ankles helped. It was very hot on the way down. I was feeling like my skin was burning even with the sunscreen on. I arrived to where I decided I would camp and dropped my bag. Then I immediately put my feet in the creek to cool them off and get the swelling down. Felt so freaking good. First time on trail I've had to do that... last year I did it almost multiple times a day. I chatted with the other hikers for a bit after setting up my tent, picked up a horny toad lizard and put him somewhere safe and ate some snacks and then retired to my tent for the night. Very tired today. I think the sun got to me a bit. And the bigger mileage. Slowly working my way up :) It feels good. Tomorrow I do 10.2 miles Wish me luck!! 5 miles hiked/ solo camp
-Saw 12 people going NOBO today Today I was going to hike 9.5 miles uphill, but the altitude really started to kick my ass so I just went 5 miles instead. It was so hot today. I didn’t start hiking till 11ish because we know how much I love my sleep and I slept till 8am. Then packed up and organized and left for trail at 10:30. I ate 12 slices of ham for my lunch LOL. It’s about 1:15pm right now and I’ve only gone like 2.8 miles. My chest is so tight from the altitude and my headache is brutal. I am going to rest till 1:30 and then keep pushing. Maybe if I rest every half mile I’ll be okay. God I hate altitude. Second lunch I ate a Nutella peanut butter wrap. I got to camp at 3pm. It’s so hot out as it’s still early, so I set up my tent (took like 20 minutes because it’s soooo windy I had to go searching for rocks… I hope this time my tent holds) Then I walked .2 back to shade I found before and read a bit. I had to reinforce my tent again. This wind is getting to me… I watched my show, posted on Instagram, saw a beautiful sunset (FINALLY) and went to sleep :) Tomorrow will be a hard day but I’m excited for the challenge. 7 ish miles
Slack pack day Today I had to wake up super early because Abel had to drive to Agua Dulce to drop off hikers around 7am. So 6:30 wake up for me. I got dropped off and started hiking by 7:40 ish. I made it in record time because I jogged a bit and got to the other road by 10ish. What a luxury hiking without the heavy pack haha. After I got a massage and then went to Walmart for resupply. Abel picked me up from Walmart and we went back home and I took a nap. Then I made dinner for everyone (Mommy Dinner I called it since I was a kid) We watched a man named Otto…. I cried my eyes out. And then we chatted a bit and I went up to bed to be alone for a bit. Tomorrow I hit the trail again :) I can’t wait! Zero day in Tehachapi
Today started off super sleepy, I stayed in bed till like 10am. I got ready to go meet my new hiker friend David at his air bnb because he has a pool. I arrived at the air bnb around 11am and we hung out in the pool and outside in the sun until around 1:45. Then I got a hitch home with the cleaner and ate some food and watched my show. Around 4 the rest of the house started to arrive home and I chatted with my trail angels a bit. Now I’m back in bed watching my show and resting until dinner. Eyes are super tired. My body and mind keeps tricking me into thinking I’m getting itchy on my legs, it is driving me insane waiting to see if i get symptoms, but I feel like I should have by now if I was going to get them. Dinner was AMAZING. Chicken curry. Abel and Kim are such great cooks. We chatted for a while during and after dinner and then played a game called 'Skip Bo' which I haven't played since I was a little girl. (Shout out to my Ant Pat for getting me that game years ago) and then I retired back to my bed to watch my show and chat with my family. 10.3 miles hiked/6 hikers seen
Today started out with me sleeping in till 8 because I slept so badly last night with my tent malfunctioning again. Around 9 I started hiking. I came across a crap ton of poodle dog bush (look it up if you don't know what this is) and I was super worried. I had to walk very strategically to ensure I didn't brush against any of it. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, my clumsy self tripped and fell into it on one side while I was avoiding it on the other side of trail. So of course as soon as this happened I started to freak out and hyperventilate and cry. I made a post in a trail angel group and someone commented they can come get me and get me to the town to rest while I wait to see if I get any symptoms. (Fingers Crossed) The bail out point was a forest service road approx 4.5 miles from where I was so I got to hiking and called my momma to calm me down. When I got to where the trail meets the road I got a message from the person meeting me that the road is blocked with a gate and they can't get through.. so that meant an extra 3.2ish mile walk to get to her at the gate. My feet were already hurting from the rough terrain today so I felt a little more defeated knowing I had these extra miles ahead of me. I thought to myself, "nothing I can do about this tho, I need to get off trail so I have no other choice except to hike these miles" and I got to trekking. Near the end my hip was starting to hurt, but it was just achey and not a sharp pain. push through Alyssa. Once I got to the truck Megan offered me some baby wipes to wipe the poodle dog bush off my leg and we started driving to Tehachapi. Around 3 pm we met Abel and he drove me into town (my amazing trail angel who I stayed with last year and said I could stay with them this year despite the fact they aren't hosting other hikers till their exchange students leave in June. So I am incredibly thankful to Abel and Kim) After I ate some enchiladas Abel came back to pick me up and take me back to the house so I can shower, do laundry and relax. I gave Kim a big hug once I arrived and then got unstinky and put on some hiker loaner clothes while I did laundry. Then I met their exchange students, two very sweet girls. We ate stir-fry for dinner (yummy) and chatted a bit before we all went to sleep. I couldn't sleep well again. I don't know what it is about being indoors right now with sleeping but I can't seem to get to sleep nicely. 4.12 miles hiked/ Solo Camp
I woke up around 7 and then told myself to go back to sleep for a bit. Then I woke up at 8:30 and started to get ready for the day. I packed up my gear, confirmed I had enough food, and then ate my left over tator tots and spicy Mac and cheese bites from the night before. Yummy. Around 10:30 I started hiking. I was planning on 4-7 miles today depending on how my hip does (this morning it ached a bit). However the weather had other plans. It was very foggy suddenly while hiking. Started about .7 miles into the day. And it started to get very very cold and windy too. All uphill today too. Type 2 fun. I very much enjoyed my day hiking today even when it was windy. Hiking through the eerie burn zone with fog was a cool experience. Around 3.4 miles in I started to feel the occasional drop of rain on my face and I hate the rain haha. When I spotted the campsite at 4.12 miles around 1pm it started to pour on me. I started to set up my tent but the wind was so much I had to change tent spots…. And then again. Third times the charm right? I decided to get warm and dry and wait out the rain and wind for a while. However it continued for 4.5 hours and I decided by then that I should just stay out for the night and wait till tomorrow :) Now it’s almost 7 and still incredibly windy so I haven’t moved out of my sleeping bag except to pee haha. It’s weird how I’m barely hungry still. I hope that changes soon because I assume that I am under eating. So sometimes I force myself to eat when I don’t want to. I have service tonight so I’m doing Q and A’s on my Instagram and watching a movie till I sleep :) Tonight the wind is so bad that it’s pulled out the tent stakes 4 times so far… it’s almost 4am. And I had multiple rocks over them… make that 5 times now. Fuck my life honestly. I’ve barely slept tonight. ...... 6 times. 5am. 4 miles hiked
2.3 miles until I felt pain in my hip today. So I think I’m slowly getting stronger? Hope so haha. Today I think I am going to get into town and charge up and resupply :) I like the idea of having my hip rest on a bed that doesn’t deflate during the night….. yeaaaa I’ve realized my pad is deflating throughout the night so that sucks. Thinking if I can get a bathtub in a hotel maybe I can find the hole and patch it? I still feel good. I feel content out here. Sometimes I miss the comfort of being in my own home and of course my family waiting for me to come home after I finish. But I know I will be home when the time is right. I’ve only cried out of sadness once since being out here, and honestly if I didn’t have the exterior factor of being wetted out I doubt I would have cried. I’ve cried of happiness a few times though. I’m starting to feel like myself again. I am starting to think about how I can keep this feeling I have of myself when I get home after trail. Last time I started to lose myself again. I don’t want that to happen again. ..... Okay so plot twist. I took two hitches to get into this little town and Google lied, there wasn’t a hotel. So that’s rough. Now I need to figure out what to do next. I was so excited for a bed ya know? ...... Okay okay, so I found a family and they took me in for the night. Super amazing people. They have an ostrich farm so I got to see like 15 ostriches getting fed today. We chatted and then I took a nap. After the nap we talked some more just about everything, life, comedy, movies, mental health etc. We had a few drinks at the restaurant in town and took our food for take out to bring back to the house to the kids to eat :) Then we half watched a movie and then half watched a stand up comedy show while we were chatting away till like 10pm. I finally decided to retire to sleep :) Tomorrow back to trail :) I can’t wait! 6 miles hiked/ First night camping with other people (like 10)
Made it 1.33 miles before I started to feel any pain in my hip! So that’s a huge win. Everyday I’ve felt pain almost instantly. I’m feeling good. I almost want to make it 10 miles today to Green Valley but I know I should not do that. I have had a couple people pass me while I was at camp and I told them to yell at me if they see me at Green Valley. So that will be another incentive not to go farther then I planned today. It’s weird I felt the pain as soon as I started going downhill, last year I only hurt on the uphills. Interesting After my first rest I didn’t feel any pain until another 1.5 miles. However then the pain didn’t stop. So I’m a little worried but I know everything will work out :) It was an easy day besides that. The trail provides. Today was a good day though. I met a bunch of people who I probably won’t remember their names haha Tonight I’m camping with like 10 other people. I socialized for a bit and then I decided to retire to my tent and be alone. I hope I can catch my first sunset on trail today. I have been waiting for one to show up. .... I got a little baby sunset as it was mainly hidden by the mountains. |
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