Day 22

This is actually day 22. Somehow I lost a day somewhere along the way… ooops! I started the day not sure if I was getting back on the trail or not. I went over to the hostel office and there was a 10:30 ride leaving. I had a few hours to kill so I hung out with the the few hikers left and by luck there was a guy (David) who was a massage therapist there. He was able to help me out with some massage and walking techniques. He also suggested to lighten my load and ship food to Wrightwood to lessen my impact on my knees and feet. Off to my pack I went and took out about 4lbs of food and boxed it up to give to one of the hostel workers (Shawn) to mail for me.

It was time to say goodbye to Sarge and the guys and get mentally prepared for hiking after having 5 days off. The shuttle came and by coincidence again the drivers name was Paul… a different one of course. Just weird but in a cool sort of way. One Paul picks me up on the side of the he road, another drops me off. I was hoping it was some kind of good luck thing. Only one other hiker (James) was heading out. We got to the trailhead and James immediately hit the trail. I took a few minutes to reflect on my last day on trail and to think about how great my time at the hostel was..I was really going to miss it.

I started off and it wasn’t too bad. I still had the knee pain but as I kept moving along I felt the pain in my feet creep up so I walked slowly so I could get some miles in. The trail wasn’t hard, it was the shale rock that I felt with every step. It was punishing the bottoms of my feet, it felt like I was walking on a bed of nails. There wasn’t much of a view other than the desert, so I concentrated on my steps and thought about how far I would go today. There was a campsite 10 miles in so I focused on that. Since I started at 11:15 I wasn’t thinking about anything much longer. I arrived at the campsite around 5 or so and was greeted by two hikers whom I previously met, Ratatouille and Gandolf. Ratatouille is another hammock hiker and also is doing some podcast called Trailside Reader I think. Gandolf rolled his ankle a few days ago and was hanging out till it got better. Funny thing is, as I walked in, they were watching “Empire Strikes Back” on the phone. So out of place in the wilderness. As I set up shop other hikers showed up to camp as well. I ate then relaxed in the hammock thinking how the next day would unfold. I was finally able to break out those down pants to try and believe me they were worth the wait. I was covered in down head to toe and top to bottom.