Friday, January 4, 2013

Day 4: May 28, 2012


May 28, 2012.

Day: 4     Daily Miles: 39     Total Miles: 183     Hours Hiking: 15.5    6:10am-9:45pm

Listen to the audio journal above or Download May 28th Audio File Here

Day 4

Afternoon
Climbing up San Jacinto.
May 28, it's about 6:40pm. I'm hiking up San Jacinto still. It's been a rough day. I don't know, it's a combination of a lot of things, but I'm sore, I got like 4.5 hours of sleep last night. I feel a little dehydrated even though I've had 5 liters of water today. The trail... oh my. It goes up then straight down, then up. It's super steep and has a bunch of cobbly scree in the middle of the trail making life difficult and you just follow this ridge baking in the sun for the first half of the day, which doesn't help. I took a bunch of breaks and I'm just taking it slow. I'm at mile 30 and should be at like mile 35. Lets see where I get to tonight; I'm not trying to push today. I know I need to get more sleep so my body can repair itself because it's sore and tired. It's one of those, almost a daily occurrence, doubting – why the hell am I doing this? I knew it wouldn't be fun every day. You go through mood swings for sure. Like the mornings are great, the afternoons are awful and the evenings are great. And so there's a big long time when you're in the sun and heat and afternoon where you just... are hating this… haha. There's also this looming thing that's like 'you gotta make miles, you gotta go, you gotta go', which isn't that fun, truly. But I promised myself give it at least a week or two, and once I get to the Sierras, oh, the Sierras. Life is so much different than the desert. I knew this first week would be tough, the body has to get used to it, and it's hot, and there are stretches without water and it's not plentiful. So, I at least have to stick it out for a while and basically make my decision to continue after what I consider the hard part is over. We'll see. Once I just get to the top, I'm probably at about 8500 ft and in the pine trees again. I'm in the shade, the sun’s getting lower, I see Palm Springs and everything out there below, and just take a deep breath and feel and smell the pine needles and fresh mountain air and its sooo goood. It's quite revitalizing and I wish I were in the Sierras just because it's so much better than the desert and not have to hike lots and lots of miles through it. We'll see where I get. I'm really looking forward to water in about a mile so I can refill and drink a whole heck of a lot. I'll catch ya tonight.

The trail follows that ridge up San Jacinto.
Gooood night, it's probably around 11:10 or 11:15pm. I'm quite ready to go bed—I was ready to go to bed probably about six hours ago, or at least take a long nap. But here I am, all ready for bed, GIANT dinner, it was almost hard to eat it all. So today is May 28th...Actually the coordinate for where I spent last night, the 27th, which I forgot to record are 0540063 E 3673352 N. Today is 5-28, May 28th, my dad’s birthday. I wish him happy birthday, managed to get service and I'm currently camped out at about 8500 ft looking down on Idyllwild, Corona, and Riverside at all the bright lights, it's really kind of nice actually. On the other side of the mountain you get a great view of all Palm Springs and all the other little communities nestled in there. You could even see the Salton Sea today, it was pretty clear. Tonight’s coordinates are 0528187 E 3737793 N. I did 39 miles today, which I'm a little disappointed about. I wasn't feeling very great. The good news is that in 2009 when Scott Williamson and Krudmeister hiked, they only did 37, so I'm a little bit up on that, which is awesome. I just hope I can get more sleep and feel better and more energized tomorrow. It's all downhill. Well, the first 20 miles or so is downhill. I'll be crossing Interstate 10 and there might be some trail magic under it, we'll see. I had a huge dinner and it was hard to eat it all, but I think I already mentioned that. It's not that cold, about 50 degrees I think. Today was just one ridge up and down after another and it just sucks energy out of you, especially if you don't have it to begin with. When I made it up to Saddle Junction, directly above Idyllwild I knew there was more water about 3 miles ahead and I didn't want to camp there because it was cold and drafty so I had to continually motivate myself by telling myself to just go, just go, don't stop, keep going, just go for a good 45 minutes. That’s how tired I was. It wasn't just like go do it, and then it's done. I have to struggle with it. But like I said in my other recording, the first week is going to be the hardest, I'll get my schedule dialed in, I'll get my daily mileage figured out, the optimal amount, and hopefully if I get more sleep I'll be more energized and my body can help repair itself. 
Sunset from just before the trail junction down to Idyllwild.
Right now I'm sooore, everywhere. If I sit for a while, I liken it to a train starting. I'll start out, step............... step............. step.........step at 1mph, then I'll creep up to 1.5 mph, then maybe up to 2mph, and eventually up to a rickety 3mph that’s kind of stiff. Then about a minute into it, it becomes the fluid motion. I just can't start walking because everything is sooo sore and I have to work it in. But once you're going, you're going and you don't think about it. I got a sore spot on my right little toe today after I tightened the shoe laces this morning just to try to save my socks because they are getting worn down because my foot is moving so much in the shoe. It actually put two holes in the first pair of socks after 150 miles and this next pair is trying, but I may have solved it, besides the fact that my little toes wants to get a blister. I’ll figure that out. I just cut off the top inch of the shoe on my left foot because it was rubbing a big fat hole just above my heel where the rim of the shoe meets my ankle. There's a big hole that I've been continually trying to pull up my sock to cover. These short socks don't seem to want to stay where it's rubbing. The right foot is totally fine with the rubbing, not a big deal. Ya know, whatever, you just fix it as you go. Cut it off and who cares. In 500 miles these shoes will be trash anyways, so it’s not a problem. I think that’s about all there is to say about today. I didn't meet many people. It wasn't terribly hot. It could have been hotter, lets put it that way. It wasn't nice, it was warm and sunny. I think I burned the forearms a little bit from holding the trekking poles because I didn't put any lotion on. I drank 5 liters today and made it 30 miles to the top of San Jacinto to get some of the most rewarding water ever, just because all day long I wanted to get there, and get there, and get there, and it wasn't happening and when I finally got there, I got 3 liters of snow melt and it tasted sooo good. I was probably so dehydrated at that point. I had at least 1 liter in one three-minute period. I was just like ohh its soo good drink more, ohh its soo good drink more, ohh it’s sooo good. There's nothing that beats water, especially when your body really really wants it. Especially snowmelt. I did purify it, but still it tasted soo good. Big downhill, lots of fun, my feet are going to hurt and hopefully I get over to White Water Canyon and take a bath, that'd be amazing. Get some of this crap that’s caked onto me off. Alright, that's all for now.
San Jacinto ridge 180 Panorama on trail looking where I've just come from. About 3 miles to the 'top'.