As the norm, I woke up early, packed my bag and headed out ahead of my tramly.
After about a mile I’m greeted by the first actual river crossing so far.
I crossed it and then took advantage of the situation and refilled my water while I waited for my crew to catch up
Followed the rocky riverbed for a few miles and of course it kept heading up.
A few hours later we are back above the riverbed.
This part of the trail started to get nasty. It was exposed and the sun was pretty hot. There were no safe areas to take cover and wait the heat out.
We pushed some miles through this and it took its toll. Mild heat issues started to plague all of us.
Fortunately the trail led to another valley that had a river running through it. We were not the only hikers to stop here and hide under the only tree. There were several of us napping, sitting in the river and trying to just hide from the brutal day.
It was hot…
I was miserable. Overheated, under fed and still dealing with that lung thing. I was feeling very weak and at that moment I wanted to quit.
Yes, I wanted to quit….
I was in so much pain from pushing huge miles. I haven’t been eating right and was paying the price.
It was the first time I cried because I couldn’t believe that I wanted to quit. My dream of doing this was starting to feel like it’s becoming unobtainable.
In front of me is still a huge mountain that I have to go over. My legs hurt so much that I walked uphill at a .5 mph or less pace. Every step felt bad, my thighs were done.
Doubt was setting in..
I could turn around and walked 45 miles to a bailout point or I could walk up this 6000 foot climb over 30 more miles and keep pushing.
My crew is trying to convince me to make just 6 more miles to a campsite, by this time we’ve already done about 13. I didnt have it in me. There was no way that I was going to make it up the mountain the way I felt.
I pushed myself, made it 3 more miles before my body said to stop. I’m making myself suffer by now.
I find a decent non marked camp site that would fit our 3 tents.
Never quit on a bad day. Damn I wanted to though.
Ate dinner, fell asleep.
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