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'. |
