Mile 635 to 652
The Mojave stretch continues. Again, we woke at 4am, this time feeling weary and lethargic. I felt a bit like the walking dead, feeling less inspired by the sunset. But then...I killed it! Boom and I were the first ones from Slow Magic to the road; we hiked 17 miles by 11am. I know, right?
This speedy hike was made possible by the company of an awesome couple from Cincinnati, Bomber and Lou, who were delightful (and FAST) company for the morning. Later, we ran into Cheez-It and Sunshine, and we ran again to keep up with them, meaning we beat a personal record: over 2.5 miles per hour!
[hiking at 5am, hiking at 5:15am, hiking at 5:30am, hiking so fast, dead, being saved from the desert by a nice stranger]
We waited a bit, expecting JP and DH to catch us at any moment, but after an hour only Hardway had caught us. The heat was getting unbearable, even sitting in the "shade," so we walked down to the road, and I stood on the burning pavement, trying to hitch at midday. We thought we would wait at least 30 minutes if not longer, as we were trying to hitch 25 miles from basically the middle of no where. But thank G, the second car that drove by veered over, and we piled in.
By the time we reached the Weldon KOA, we were feeling the results of two days in the Mojave. We spent the rest of the day laying around, fighting headaches and nausea. But we felt victorious, hiking the past two days with relative ease and keeping a sense of gratitude throughout.
