Dear Diary: Today sucked. Well, not all of the day, but it was a ROUGH hiking day. I wasn’t alone though. Doodlebug and Nitro struggled all day as well. We didn’t leave camp until a little after 8:00 a.m. The combination of soreness (our bodies felt beat up from yesterday’s wind), very heavy packs, and lots of ups and downs wore on us all day. We took several breaks and stopped to filter water for the next 20-mile waterless stretch. Once we were loaded up again with water, the miles were painful for me as the excessive pack weight put a strain on my legs and hips and lower back and shoulders.
The big news of the day was my swollen left leg, which now has a swollen, reddened area about 6 inches in diameter. It is very painful to touch and painful when walking down at certain grades. I have been concerned all day that it may be the bite of a Brown Recluse spider, in which case I may need to seek medical attention soon (and the first road crossing was 35 miles from Tehachapi). The area is very swollen and around the bite area the skin is beginning to blister. Time will tell. Despite rough hiking conditions taking a toll on our bodies, I managed to make camp by 6:30 p.m. and immediately began cooking and set up for the second night in a row of cowboy camping since leaving Tehachapi. Cowboy camping will be virtually non-existent once we hit the Sierras and even farther north in Oregon, due to massive swarms of mosquitoes that we will soon encounter. We are in a large grassy meadow tonight with a quarter moon up in the sky and lots of breezy winds blowing.
We met Sage and Alyssa today at the water source; they are camping about 50 yards from us in the meadow and were asleep in their bags by 7:00 p.m. Hopefully, tomorrow the spider bite swelling will be reduced and will cease spreading. We are going to bed early to get ready for an early start tomorrow since the weather is supposedly going to get very hot.
Today’s weather: low 48 high 83. Sunny and breezy. Today’s mileage: 19.3; cumulative mileage: 593.2.
