Day 40: I Walked On Your Water, Los Angeles

Date: May 19, 2017
Miles: 517.6 – 534.9

“The hobble will be strong tomorrow.” ~ Gringo (Paul)

Matthew, Orange, John, Paul, Roi, Katie and Connor all arrived at Hikertown at various times today and we all spent the day there and at the store, waiting out the heat.  

The exceptions were Roi and Allen, who both decided to hike out in the middle of the day and were rewarded at Cottonwood Creek bridge with root beer floats and burgers that some trail angels brought out for the afternoon. I, on the other hand, just managed to finish the jar of peanut butter that I’ve been carrying since Campo.  I thought I would have been eating it like crazy since I like peanut butter so much at home, but it was often the last thing I felt like eating in the hot, dry desert and I’d end up trying to swallow it forever, looking like a dog does when you put a big glob of it on its nose. I kept chipping away at it only because I wanted to use the empty jar to cold cook noodles and mix my morning Instant Breakfast / coffee powder drink, but when I was finally done and I filled the jar with water, I realized that the lid leaked. These are the tragedies I deal with today. So bummed. 

Once it got a little cooler, the rest of us took off for the trail and soon hit the LA aqueduct. 

We walked on top of and alongside the giant pipe for several miles and then road-walked the rest of the way to Cottonwood Creek bridge, which was the next water source. And when I say ‘walked’, I really mean ‘death-marched’ – I had gone ahead of Katie and Connor and hiked with the rest of the guys who like to hike fast because I wanted to make it to the bridge before midnight and it felt like a race to see who could finish first. My ego wouldn’t let me slow down to my usual pace, so I kept up until the end and got a good blister on my heel along with the likely beginning of plantar fasciitis in my right foot to show for it.  I also ended up taking very few pictures. Lesson in ‘Hike Your Own Hike’ philosophy learned. 

It was nearly 11 pm when we reached the bridge and I was an exhausted mess with wrung-out legs, so I quickly set up camp by the dry creek bed under the bridge, had a snack and a giant ibuprofen and passed out.