Date: April 21, 2017
Miles: 127.3 – 144
“I’m a leader. Not a follower. Unless it’s a dark place, then you’re going first.” ~ Unknown
This may not come as a surprise to you at this point, but after we said goodbye to Mike’s Place we walked through more desert. I entertained myself by taking pictures of some of the flowers and listening to Lord Huron. The right kind of music can really make the miles go by quickly. Along the way I met Alan From Ohio and Outro (Matthew), who chatted for a while then kept going at about a 4 mph speed uphill. I tried to keep pace with them for a while just to see if I could, but then I felt like I might die so I quit that. Slow and steady is still my speed.
Earlier in the day we had decided that we would all shoot for a campsite at mile 144, so I decided to hike on ahead in solitude until then. As the sun started to go down, the colors of the desert became a little brighter and I cruised through the landscape very contentedly, enjoying the beauty of it all set to music.
Then the sun disappeared, it got dark, and my brain decided that the desert was suddenly full of mountain lions that were going to be attracted by the mousy squeak of my backpack and that the Canadians would end up finding nothing of me but the Pusheen lying on the side of the trail. I kept turning around to see what the rustling sounds were behind me until I figured out that it was actually my pack. Just as I was convinced that I had walked right past our campsite and that my trail name would soon be ‘Snack’, I heard Outro and Alan setting up their tents to my left. I crashed their site and they kept me company until Strongback and Katie showed up. I guess night hiking isn’t so bad after all.
