22 Miles Today
139 Total Miles
Last night as I was settling in a never ending of people, smart people, began to arrive at camp 115. Instead of rushing out at the crack of dawn, I got up about when everyone else got up. Some people left before me and a few people were still there when I left. My plan today was to still get in twenty five miles. The difference was that I planned to stop during the hottest part of the day.
Throughout the morning a number of us leap-frogged past each other. I had a chance to get to know most of their names. Most of them have trail names. They are, in no particular order, GT Cookie, Emir, Starfish, Methinks, Two-tone, Flacco, Kat, and bunch of others that I can't think of right now.
I arrived at Mike Herrera's place around noonish where Tom and Mama were our hosts. Mama handed me a plate of biscuits and gravy and said, "use your own silverware." I didn't bring my silver so I grabbed my titanium sport which worked just as well. I went around to the north side of the house where there was a big cool concrete porch in the shade and I lay down on my back and propped my feet up on my pack until I heard they were serving tacos. Tom was cooking them fresh on the outdoor stove. Frying them up till they were crispy. They were so good I went back for seconds.
Some hikers are so much more social than I. I enjoy meeting people and talking to them face to face, but when I get on the trail you are either talking to the backpack in front of you or trying to carry on a conversation with someone behind you. So I tend to not talk much on the trail. Besides everybody walks at a different pace so you either have to walk faster than normal or slower than normal and it messes with my head.
I hung out at Mike's until three with an overly optimistic plan to get to mile140 tonight. I hiked ten miles through the desert seeing only Hawaii Jeff. The trail seemed a lot longer than ten miles when I finally arrived at Tule Spring to get more water. GT Cookie, Negra, Starfish, and Emir were already here. I contemplated just getting water, then I thought maybe I'll just have dinner, Emir said you're staying here. He was right so I am here. We are all planning on getting up at four and going to the Paradise Cafe.