ICT Day 5: May 31st

We're out of water.

I'm tired and thirsty. There's no lagging this morning. It's hard to move fast when you're that dehydrated. I feel like a raisin. But the one that fell into between the couch cushions. Forgotten about. With the destiny of being sucked up in a whirlwind of dust. Which actually happened to me. The dustnados out here are no joke.

When I get out of my tent, I can see the cabin up on a hill to the north west of us. It's probably about 2/10ths of a mile away. So thankfully we didn't have to be walking without water for long. I'm kind of proud of myself for planning out the water caches and how long it would take us to get there. I was almost spot on. The next water cache is at Bruneau overlook. I'm not sure how many miles. It didn't take me long to stop counting. My mom reminded me there's a creek 15 miles up that has reliable water. We made it a goal to make it that far and camp there tonight. Our parents took part of our water cache and moved it up 9 miles so that we would have a slightly lighter load this time.

Up at the cabin, we each drink about a liter of water and make some breakfast. I'm still feeling exhausted. My depression is really sinking in today. Why did I do this? The desert is hot and annoying and miserable. Every hour is the hottest hour of the day. Flies are gross. I have to wave my poles around while I poop so that I'm not sexually harassed by them. I want a shower. I'm hoping that the water source at Winter Camp will be deep enough for me to get in.

Today was a counting day. Once I get to 100 steps, I stop and count 100 more.

About four hours in, we reach a small gorge that looks like there is flowing water during the wet season but there's definitely no water there now. We pull out our map to see if this is Winter Camp. The topo map only shows one place with a significant dip in elevation, Winter Camp, so we assumed that this was the spot. It had to be. It was a small bummer to not see water, but on the other hand, we were surprised and excited to see that we apparently had our trail legs finally!

A few hours later, we see something on the side of the trail. It's water with a note on it. It's the water our parents left us. At the 9 mile mark. We've only gone 9 miles. It took us all day to go 9 miles. We're both low on energy and physically in pain. The bottom of my feet are completely raw. I'm done for the day. We walk a little bit further until we find a flat spot to set up the tent. I'm frustrated but I decided to take advantage of the sunset and do a time-lapse of it.

I saw lots of snake tracks today. No snakes yet though. There are getting to be hills around us now. We're losing elevation which is why it's getting hotter by the hour. Right now, we're in a race to beat the 100+ degree weather which will be here Tuesday. At our pace, we've probably got three more days to go. Today is Sunday.

I lost the go-pro somewhere. I walked back about a third of a mile, scanning the trail for it. My body just couldn't handle walking anymore so I turned back towards camp. I tried to hold it together but I just can't. My head is low and the tears start flowing. My eyes are burning because all the dirt on my eyelashes getting in my eye. I crawled into my tent and forced myself to eat some mashed potatoes. All that footage, just gone.

I'm trying to think positively. We're almost done with the desert, then we'll be off to the beautiful foothills. I've hiked more miles than I ever have before, so every step forward is a new record. I should be proud. Is it okay that I'm not? Is it wrong that I'm being hard on myself for not making more miles? I think I'm in my head too much. Tomorrow is a new day.