Another zero, another day of alternating binges of eating and resting. The closest thing to a semblance of self-control came when, upon eating the first half of a pint of Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream, I put the lid back on and waited 10 minutes before eating the other half. Not exactly the greatest imaginable display of willpower, but it somehow seemed important at the time.
Unburned
Forty-five minutes after a final 3:30am wake-up call, Proton and I were off into the darkness. It was a lesson in micro-climates, as certain stretches of trail were easily 10 degrees warmer or cooler than where we had camped…
Inferno
Today marks one month since I set out on the trail from the border of Mexico--it's hard to believe it's gone by so quickly. When my 3:30am alarm went off yet again, I awoke to find that a mouse had taken to using my sandal straps as both a salt lick and a bit of a chew toy during the night despite them being two feet from my head. No major damage.
Water Report
The Milky Way and all the stars that studded the sky were perfectly clear as I rolled out of my tent at 3:30am, bleary-eyed from another night of little sleep. The scheduled days of the desert--waking before sunrise to beat the heat, resting for hours during the worst of the heat, and moving again in the evening--have begun to exact a toll.
Gazelle
The alarm went off at 3:30am, and with it came a change in plans. After battling a stomach bug for the last three days, Gazelle decided it would be best to rest another day in town before taking her woozy stomach out into the heat. It was a disheartening start to the day…
Rest, Rest, and More Rest
Like most zero days, today was the usual choreographed sequence of rest-eat-rest-eat, with a resupply trip to the grocery store. The two days here in Tehachapi have been a welcome break, though it's easy to become restless sitting idle for such a long time after being in the routine of moving up the trail everyday.
Donald Trump is a Clown
Full Disclosure: this post is a hard right turn, temporarily detouring from trail life into the land of politics. Feel free to skip it if a brief, though impassioned political rant is not your cup of tea. Upon reaching Tehachapi and hearing the news that Donald Trump had essentially become the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, it seemed high time to take stock of how exactly the state of the 2016 presidential election had come to this....