Diary - Mile 702.
End of the desert.
The desert section is officially over. Got through the “contaminated water” section like a breeze with no casualties. Wasn’t contaminated after all. A pretty nice section too.
Then, 2 days before finishing the desert, decided to do a little detour to Sequoia National Park. I’ve always wanted to see a sequoia and the biggest of all, General Sherman, lived some 3 hour ride from the trail, so how could I, the biggest tree fan on the planet earth not visit the biggest tree on the planet earth? So after a very complicated trip that took two days and requires a whole separate boring story, there I stood, in front of a 2200 year old being, far superior to my own mere 32 years of existence. With scars of fire and “tattoos” made be people who felt entitled enough to scribble their name on this giant. It was fenced off, so I hugged a bunch of other giant sequoias instead, and went back to finish off the desert. And this is where the “fun” begins. Because the next day was a biblically hellish price I had to pay for taking two days off trail to visit my god, The Tree.
Remember I said I would sizzle for one more week in the frying pan? Cause it’s the desert, it’s hot, right? Wrong. The first night woke up to thunderstorms. Thunderstorm ended, so we thought we’ll get over another mountain ridge before another one comes. Wrong again. Got caught in a big storm on top of a mountain, spent some time crouching in a bush while lightning struck above me and in front of me, and the ground trembled from thunder. Soaked to my underwear. Why were you in shorts Eva, and where are your rain pants? Well, i decided to mail them 100 miles forward…cause it’s the desert, it’s hot, why would I carry those 100 grams? Glad I at least kept my rain jacket “just in case”. And so, after the thunder was more or less over, 10 more miles in the rain, I decide to snack, I lean forward and don’t notice a pine branch, that gets me right in the head. Another great addition to the day- a nice scar on the forehead that makes me look even more homeless. At least it’s not bleeding, I’ll be fine. I carry on. But the great day isn’t over yet. Another 5 miles or so in, we meet hikers going down, because the lightning started a wildfire right off the trail some 10 miles ahead.
We had 35 miles left to go to Kennedy Meadows, the iconic place that officially ends the desert…where you come in and people clap and cheer and yeey, you’ve done it…and we had to turn around and skip that section. Stood on trail for about 30 min thinking whether to risk going the direction of the fire hoping that the rain has put it down. In the end, decided it’s not worth it. I’ll die another day. Turned around, got hailed on (because rain and thunder wasn’t enough. Just happy it wasn’t raining frogs at that point), bushwhacked into a four-wheeler road that lead to asphalt and hitchhiked those 35 miles. These are the first miles I skipped on the entire trail. Bit sad but oh well, nature always wins. You know what’s funny? The mile we turned around was mile 666. You got me, satan.
