My people are a cold weather people. We are Eastern European Jewish. We don’t need sun to survive. If you give us a potato and bit of vodka, we can shelter any cold front. But if you put us in the middle of a heat wave, with the sun beating down on us all day, it’s not going to be pretty. And so it should not come as a surprise that today wasn’t pretty. 

After a quick (and delicious) breakfast at the local diner, dad dropped me off back on the trail where I had gotten out a bit before 9am. I knew it wasnt going to last, but it was actually quite temperate out when I left. “When do you think you’ll make it to camp?” He asked me. And after doing the math of a lot of elevation, 22 miles and what was sure to be a pretty hot day, I told him probably by 6:30. 

I walked off into the woods and felt great. My body had really needed that day off yesterday and it seemed to be settling back into the rhythm of walking quite nicely now. I walked with ease under the blue sky and found myself easily cruising at a pretty quick clip. 

Not even the rock scrambles or boulder climbs could get in my way. I meticulously navigated those and continued onwards. I climbed up a waterfall a bit to dramatically fill my water bottle (ok, it wasn’t to look cool. It was because I saw a water snake in the pool below and I still don’t like snakes.) and didn’t even feel the need to sit still to drink my water. I wanted to take advantage of the cool weather while I could. 

But suddenly, I noticed it wasn’t cool any more. It was just before lunch time and I had already drank way more than my normal amount of water but I was parched. No I was more than parched. I was headachy, i was a bit slow and was generally showing the early signs of dehydration. I finished my water and filled up again at the next stream. 

When I walked on, the only thing I could think about was water. How much I had on me, how much I needed, where I would get it next. My pace slowed to a crawl. All my energy was zapped. 

I got to the infamous “Lemon Squeezer” – a section of trail which requires squeezing through a very narrow gap in the rocks before pulling yourself up a 8 ft tall ledge. It would’ve been hard on any day. But with no energy, I considered taking the cop out route. But knew I’d regret it, so powered through.

I ran into a section hiker who was happily taking photos of turkeys flying (fun fact, turkeys can fly very short distances) and asked him about the next water source. “If you go off trail by a half mile, there’s a lake with a cold water fountain. Besides that, no more water for the next 10 miles maybe?” I asked about the stream that the app had mentioned in about 3 miles. “Dry,” he said. “A trickle at most.” I didn’t love the idea of a mile round trip detour but it was for water. I didn’t have a choice. 

When I took the detour and saw the fountain he had mentioned, I immediately ran to it. I dunked my head under and splashed water all over my face. It was glorious. “Oy man,” called out a voice. “Want some ice cold water?” And a man reached into the back of his car for two water bottles covered in icy condensation. I thanked him graciously and also accepted the salad that he offered me. I also accepted the lecture he gave me about how when I was ready, I too could work hard for what I needed. That’s when i realized he thought I was homeless not a hiker. But I was too appreciative for the cold water. I didn’t correct him. 

Fully hydrated and with a newly soaked shirt on, I made the rest of the trek to camp. By the time I showed up it was almost 8pm and luckily dad had already gotten the fire going. We sat around and ate our packed out sandwiches before quickly getting into our hammocks. The rain starting to come down to hopefully cool off tomorrow. 

Key stats:

Miles: 22

Elevation gained: 4600 ft

Mile marker: 1398

Temperature 90 degrees (celsius)