Hike by Night

Surrounded as usual by thousands of (harmless but annoying) frantic ants I set up my tent as we made camp by the water faucet at the bottom of our long descent. I left the rain fly off, then laid awake all night as the moon shined as bright as the sun on a foggy day, complete with a halo. At the time I was irritated I couldn't sleep, but that came in handy later..

Waking up at 7am, Saina and I lazily packed and started what we assumed would be a short few miles to the infamous trail angels' place, Ziggy and the Bear's. It was the longest few miles of the trip yet!

Maybe it was the heat, perhaps our bruised and tender feet or the rattlesnakes blocking our path but it took a very long time to stagger across the sandy spillway. Took a break for some ice cold trail magic sodas and tangerines before pushing on.

By the time we arrived (hours later) we were stinky, sweaty and ready to relax. Everything that was bad turned good the minute we went in the gate at Ziggy and the Bear's. Our heat was eliminated by breezy shade, our dry mouths were treated to cold Gatorade, our stink was cured by shower and our bellies filled with pizza. A true oasis. Even Oscar got a bath and dried almost instantly on the clothesline.

We lounged around digesting pizza, no one budging in the heat. At 4pm it finally dipped under 100 degrees, our packs needed shade as well..

As afternoon rolled around I was picked up by a friend who was randomly in the area. After a handful of years I got to hang out and have margaritas and Mexican food with a good friend. So Cal Mexican food puts east coast Mexican to shame...just saying ;)

Coming back to Ziggy's I immediately see Saina closing her pack, all bubbly and ready to hike. While I was drinking margaritas she had been packing, and now I needed to catch up and ignore my belly full of laziness.. So I packed. I put everything in my bag, took out half my food so it was closer to the appropriate amount and with a few good tips from Billy Goat we took off on what would be my first night hike.

After warm and genuine hugs (and ice cream sandwiches) from Ziggy, we stormed up the hill toward the trail and met our first challenge: a fence. After 2 minutes of looking for a gate (and hoping no one was watching us poking around) I finally decided to go under the barb wire. We wiggled under and were off, covered in prickly thorns and grasses, but nothing could stop us from our adventure!

The moon was 97% full so we hiked without headlamps, the moon illuminating the path. I was hesitant to hike at night thinking I would miss seeing something beautiful but quickly realized the moonlit landscape and stars (and the perfect 65 degree weather) were incredibly pretty and surreal. I had no idea how gorgeous night hiking would be, I was mesmerized. (pictures from real camera posted soon!) We hiked for hours, climbing up a steep canyon then down into a gorge and around areas that reminded me of Dartmoor in southwest England. We stopped from time to time to rest and made it all the way to mile 216, 2 miles short of our destination, when we were stopped in our tracks. The trail in front of us had crumbled and eroded away and we were forced to double back and camp up on top of the rocky meadow a few hundred feet back. After a restless night of strong wind and a wake up call from some seriously alarming, stampeding cattle we woke up to a beautiful sunrise.

We tackled the sketchy trail in daylight and headed to the campsite. We pitched our tents and slept all day long in anticipation of our next night hike that evening. Night hiking was quickly becoming my favorite part of the trail so far, a really incredible twist on an already amazing experience!