Mind vs body
Today was a big day, lots of things happened, and also not much happened.
Today marks a month since I left NYC to start the trail, four weeks since I’ve been on trail, and also three months since Lauren and I started seeing each other. So basically, the day was a marker in a few worlds.
However happy and excited I was, the body and mind were at war. Even though I woke up at 5:45 to the rising sun, my body was not feeling it. I laid in bed for a little while before starting up breakfast. Nothing particularly in pain, just fatigue catching up with me I suppose.
Even with a double shot of coffee to start the day, I was still feeling pretty tired and not particularly excited to start a 29 mile day, even if it did mean getting into town. I was procrastinating so much, that I organized all the water cache bottles, putting all the empties on one chain, and the full ones on the other two. A solid three minutes delay on my day. It wasn’t until 7am that I actually started walking.
My body was not happy. My knee was holding up alright, but with consistent ups and downs now ranging from 100-200 feet, my knee would make itself known, and also drain my energy even faster; limping, pushing myself up on my poles, etc.
The lands were beautiful, but I was going slow. A few miles into the day, I reach the 600 mile marker on the CDT (marked by a bunch of rocks someone at one point in time laid out, and haven’t moved in who knows how long). So that was another excited milestone for the day.
Even though I was excited for many reasons, mile marker included, I was still sluggish, knee sore, feet hurting, all in all, just a lame kinda day.
But the mind persisted. Getting into town today, a day of rest and not hiking in a few miles and then resting, really pushed the body. At no point was I feeling like something would actually go wrong physically speaking, the lethargy and soreness definitely prevented me from doing the miles in the time I would normally.
I hit 16 miles just after 2:30 (about two hours later than normal). I still had about 13 miles to go. More so, I had a 750 foot climb, relatively straight up the side of a mesa. With my knee screaming from a descent come down from another, and a road that would lead to the highway going into Cuba, thoughts of making my way on the road crossed over. It was a strong feeling. It would add about a mile and a half of distance, but on smooth, flat, graded ground (I.e. there wouldn’t be much ups and downs that would hurt my knee such as the trails ups and downs).
I wasn’t quite sure which route to go, so I decided to let the trail decide for me. While there was a reliable water source listed about 2 miles before the dirt road, there were also reports of a small water cache there as well. I decided that I would skip the water source, and chance the cache (which was noted at 4.5 gallons 5 days ago, basically slim chance of being anything left). If the cache was still there, I would load up a bit of water and keep on trail. If there wasn’t any water, I’d roll along the road.
Well, as I got down there, I saw one lonely bottle of water, with about an inch and a half left. The notes mentioned both sides of the road, so I went across and there were a couple other bottles with only an inch and a half left. Written on the bottles was “please crush empties and pack out”.
Foolish, lazy, insensitive hikers either passed up using the water, or left just enough in there to warrant them not needing to pack them out. They would choose to use other bottles rather than finish the ones almost empty so they didn’t have to carry the trash. So lame.
Anyhow, because there was in fact water, I filled up a little, took a swig of another, crushed two bottles and threw them in my pack and left a note on Guthook with current amount of water and lazy hikers should be shamed.
With a little more h2o, I pushed on. Only now I had to go straight up a big climb. The positive to this, was that would pretty much it, and then a gradual descent throughout the rest of the day. Once I got to the top, it was sand for days. So much so, someone even went barefoot for a while (later in town I ran into Roger That again, and found it was his toes I had spotted in the sand).
I got to the road that leads into Cuba just after 6p and started rolling down the highway (about 4 miles in). After about two miles or so, someone pulled off to the side and offered me a ride into town. Even though it was only two miles, it would have been at least an extra 40 mins, and after 27 already hiked to that point, I graciously accepted.
He was off to get gas in town, so dropped me off at the station. Then I started walking to the hotel I had planned to stay in, when I bumped into Roger That who informed me it was already full. Looking around the desolate town with pretty much nothing in it, I was a bit confused. But oh well. I called the more hiker friendly motel (which is known for poor WiFi, but the friendliest of owners) and they too were booked (?!). We went to the last motel, and found a lady who had no clean rooms, but eventually said she would clean a couple up for us.
I went off to McDonald’s to grab some food (the only place open by this point) and by the time I came back the room was ready and I locked myself in.
With only 60 miles to the next resupply point, I don’t need much in terms of food to get me there, so it’ll be easy to resupply. But planning to rest for the day so my feet, and knee, can get some quality healing time.
Now I’m in bed, watching TV, and off to bed. I’m amazed I made it here tonight. The mind pushes the body harder than one can imagine.
