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Day 33 (Pete)
The fest of gluttony last night paid off. Our packs have dropped to a reasonable weight. It started me off in good spirits. Two factors, however, soon made me think that the seven day struggle was going to continue to be an appropriate title. A soft sandy trail and wind. There is nothing quite as…
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Day 33 (Tape)
Once again snug in my sleeping bag. I’m actually recording this from inside my sleeping bag, cause its windy outside. So I don’t know how well it’s gonna work, but we’ll see. What a day, what a day we had. In ah, oh, I was afraid in the morning, looking at the guide book. I…
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Day 33
The packs are lighter! A bit of creative navigation leads us to Willow Spring, home of many messy beeves. The water must be treated, so we use an inordinate amount of time and fuel boiling it. Then we’re up on the southernmost Sierra Ridge, sand swallowing our feet, galing winds blowing us all over the…
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Day 32 (Pete)
Oh what a long tiring day. The stomach just thought it was king in Mojave. At this point the feet, and deservedly so, are demanding equal rights. The legs and shoulders are backing the feet. The stomach’s brash usurpation of power has even caught the attention of the head office upstairs. My whole body is…
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Day 32 (Tape)
(voice is sounding noticably different – whispery, raspy) I think it’s Friday, May 17th today. We ah saw some dates in the trail register that made us think maybe it was the 18th but I’m gonna stick with the 17th for now. Um, easy water day because we passed two springs that didn’t require filtering…
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Day 32
We sent out a message in a bottle last night – a southbound hiker agreed to relay a message to Pete’s mom when he gets to Mojave. The early morning has ensconced us in our first fog since Laguna Mountain, giving the trail a mysterious, personal feel. We take our chances drinking unfiltered water from…
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Day 31 (Pete)
The amount of walking we have done is almost incomprehensible to me. We set out on our first full day with the ridiculously heavy load. It didn’t seem to slow us down so much. The miles that we did do were just painful. My feet are like the archetypal two kids in the back seat,…
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Day 31 (Tape)
I guess Thursday. A month from the day we started. There’s somethin I like about recording these things once I’m snug in my sleeping bag and the day’s events and trials are kind of… seem distant and far away. But the day started off innocently enough as we woke up and packed up the tent.…
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Day 31
Walking in the cheerful morning, two baby coyotes spring onto the trail, scaring the shit out of me. At the first springs, Golden Oaks, we find a stash of cigarettes and pornography that someone has left for the benefit others. We enjoy a lighthearted lunch until we realize that we face a serious problem. Both…
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Day 30 (Pete)
After Dylan briefly fell asleep on the sidewalk in front of the closed supermarket, we settled down in a large blowing trash scrub bush wasteland between the grocery and a dead airplane holding facility. Trains passed throughout the night making every sort of racket. I dreamed of train hopping and concluded, on waking, that it…