Another Week: Silverwood Lake to Agua Dulce
It has been a LONG time since I last posted... like 400 miles long! I'm accounting this to not only the lack of WIFI, but also my depression starting to set back in and losing the motivation to do anything other than walk. Onward.
Like I've said in the past, I'm very open about my mental health and have been practicing more and more to tell my family when I'm not feeling good so that they can give me the support I need or want. My love language is words of affirmation, so a lot of the time, getting a text from my mom saying she's proud of me, a message from dad just saying hello, or Jaason asking what kinds of cookies he should make, helps my morale immensely. Other times though, I send a message through my satellite phone saying I had a bad day, cried a lot, or am just not feeling it. The first thing they usually ask is, "are you still having fun/enjoying what you're doing?" This is the perfect question because it makes me my thoughts: why am I on the trail, is it the trail I'm upset with, how is my mental health, is this something I can work through or should I get off trail for extra help... so far, I have been able to push through all of the hard times and start fresh the next day. Sometimes, I start fresh the next day and immediately find a reason to curse Tanya (my name for the wind, it makes it more personal that way), she's been the biggest pain in my butt. It's been a wild ride these past few months, but I wouldn't change a single moment of it. I have learned and grown so much from this experience already, I can't wait to see what the rest of this trail has instore for me.
I’m currently off trail recovering from various muscle aches, resupplying, and trading out some gear before I enter the Sierras! By the time you read this, I will be back on trail and will have had my first taste of the mountains. I cannot express how excited I am to be back out there and smell the pine trees, but for now you get a flash back to what I’ve been up to on trail!
Going back 400 miles, after leaving the Joshua Inn, we hiked all the way to Silverwood Lake. It was so hot this day, when I got to the water, I dropped my pack, all of my clothes and RAN into the lake. It was so refreshing! The hot sun was beating down, keeping my shoulders and cheeks warm while my legs and chest submerged into the icy water. This was one of those moments when you think, oh, this is just a weekend vacation at the lake, we’ll be home tomorrow and have to go back to work soon… but next thing you know, you’re laying on the top of a hill peak, watching the sun go down with friends all around you. I fell asleep under the stars with excitement for breakfast to come… “Why?” you ask? Well let me tell you, NEVER in my life did I think I would set an alarm for 4am and RUN 10 miles with a full pack to get to McDonalds for breakfast… but in this moment, a McGriddle was a god send that I needed to get my hands on as SOON as possible. That next day, when we got to the McD’s it was 10am and scorching hot. The drive thru was under renovation so we all sat behind the building in the shade, eating our breakfasts until the sun started going down. We still wanted to hike out about 6 miles that night, and we knew it was going to be about a 20 mile water carry, so once the sun started setting we took off with our packs too full of water.
The next morning, I left camp at 6:00am (about an hour or two before everyone else, trying to beat the heat). The sun-rises were amazing and the sunset that night was beautiful as well. We stayed in an actual camp site with a mountain view and watched the sun go down under the rocky hills. A few days later, we ended up in Wrightwood where we all ate lots of mexican food and drank lots of tequila. We danced, played pool, and I even helped a man named Sappy learn to crochet. He’s making himself a hat for the sierras!
Baden-Powell was our next climb and it was… not great. Everyone in our group had a rough day. Rapunzel fell down the mountain about 200 feet and was left alone with her adrenaline to finish the day. I’m so proud of her for not giving up, I considered it a few times myself. This day, I cried about 4 times and when I got to camp, was (guiltily) happy to see that others had suffered too. The next day was much better though. There's a section of trail that is closed due to an endangered species restoration area, so we got to road walk a lot that day. It was full of trail magic from day hikers and the exciting 400 milestone! Raunzel and I danced, “played whackbat,” and sang all day feeling much better than the day before.
A couple days later, was the best view I had seen on trail yet. We had been staying near a ranger station right before Acton, and the sunrise was literally breathtaking. I facetimed my parents and Jaason just so they could see the beautiful view too. The sky was grey and the clouds were fire red and orange, you could see mountains peaking through the low white clouds in the valley… it was so dynamic! I’m glad the morning was so good, because I ended up having a rough day later. I didn’t end up eating breakfast because I was only 8 miles away from the campground and figured I would just eat there. I was still feeling good when I arrived and was so excited to get my resupply box because I knew mom had put in my new shoes and some fun easter treats! They didn't have my box. I went in the back and even helped them look… it wasn’t there. So I, now starving and emotionally hangry, calmly walked outside and just cried. I called mom and she said it looks like it was still at the post office. Now, with a new plan (wait two days until I can get to the post office), I grabbed a beer and headed towards a nice hot shower. My day just got worse. The shower was freezing. So I just went to sleep.
Easter was the next day, and there was no point in not walking, so we walked about 10 miles to Vasquez rocks where Cali’s parents surprised us with easter baskets! They were filled with electrolytes, mini salt and pepper, hot sauce, olive oil and cotton ball chicks! Some of us stuck them on our hats, while others put them on their pack straps. The day was great, we ate lots of fresh foods, did a hiker trash boudoir, and I got to talk to my family for the holiday! The next morning, we hiked the one mile into Agua Dulce, where I found a hitch to get into Acton to pick up my package. After getting back to AD, my whole tramily was in Maria Bonita’s (the most delicious mexican food restaurant). When I got in They had a pitcher of margaritas and a fiesta plate of food… two pitchers later (3 total), we realized the restaurant was closing and a couple of people were in no condition to hike… The owner of Maria’s told us we can sleep on their porch if we wanted too, they really seemed to like hikers! We didn’t though. We ended up finding the contact for a trail angel named Suzy who had the sweetest puppies, hillarious daughter and roomate, and whos son was the Ant Farm kid! It was so fun!
