The Walking Dom

Mile 1499 / KM 2412
Old Station to Mount Shasta

Song of my day: "Style over Everything" by The Bronx. Can never have enough Bronx.
I miss: Feeling like a girl. Wearing a dress. Make-Up. Beauty products. Not knowing what to wear in the mornings... Things like that.

I really thought I had plenty of water on me when we left the "Cache 22" on Hat Creek Rim at 10:30am, but I was wrong. For some stupid reason I didn't double check the water bladder in my pack. Katie and I walked another hour until we parked ourselvesunder a big tree for our siesta at 12pm on the edge of the rim. Big mistake as it turned out later... We should have kept walking until 1pm since the temperatures just kept rising until 4pm.

We were stuck on the rim as we waited for the time to pass. It was crazy hot with temperatures up in the forties (!!!) and I drank way too much water thinking I still had enough in my pack. At 3:30pm we stepped into the blistering heat. After walking about a mile I checked my water bladder because I was starting to worry. That's when I realized the danger I had gotten myself into. I had about a liter left with the next water source being 9 miles away. Katie passed me and we agreed to wait on each other in 4 miles. The air was so hot that breathing hurt and all I kept thinking of water, ice cubes, ice tea and big cups of Apérol Spritz. I was blasting music and as if the situation wasn't unbearable enough Rihanna's "American Oxygen" came on and it made me want to yell at her that there was no such thing as oxygen in America!!! Things were about to go sideways. I completely panicked and I was ready to push the SOS button on my GPS. I couldn't think straight anymore and I had started to walk in squiggely lines. Just when I was ready to give up I came around a bush and saw Katie sitting there. She had waited for me much earlier than we had previously agreed on. She kept me from going completely bananas, shared the little water she had left with me and just basically saved me. Go Tape Boss! Seriously; I'm so thankful that she was there. We made it to the spring two and a half dry hours later and I don't think I've ever appreciated water as much as I did then.

This section has been super pretty, but way tougher than I thought it would be because of the heat wave we got into. Temperatures are cooling down again and I am hoping that it won't be as hard to get to Ashland now. The views in the past 3 days have been amazing with a straight shot on Mount Shasta most of the time. I've seen a lot of mountains in my short swiss life time but Mount Shasta is definitely up there when it comes to beauty. It's crazy pretty. We made it to the town of Shasta and I wish I had the time and the extra energy to hike the mountain. It looks ridiculously cool and I'll have to come back for it one day. Gotta do it. I like it here. This town has it all. Outfitters, poached eggs, grocery store, laundromat, coffee shops and most importantly; hippies! Oregon is around the corner! We are getting closer and closer and it's easy to tell by how the towns are slowly changing into hippie towns. Jem stores are everywhere. I love it! Oregon has always been my favourite state in the US and I can't wait for those misty twilight mornings that are coming up. I'm all ready in my tie-dye shirt and shorts. Bring it on Oregon!

Besides the rim incident, other "exciting" things have happened. I finally got to see a bear on trail! I was cruisin' through the woods when I heard the sound of branches cracking down below. I stopped, thinking it sounded a little clumsy for a deer. A couple seconds later a big fur ball appeared on the trail. My heart sank. I turned around and kept on walking thinking that if the bear thinks Dom doesn't care about him, the bear won't care about Dom. And so it was! Bear minded his business and Dom got away. Phew...

Good news, my feet are back on track. Not at all pain free, but I'm not eating Ibuprofein like candy anymore. I bought supporting insoles and I've got a new pair of ONs on my feet. Even after only walking in them for 3 days I can already feel a huge difference from the Altras I was wearing before. They were't good for me at all but due to some shipping problems I had to wait on my ONs. If I give it a couple of weeks, lots of stretching and massaging, I think I'll be good. It was a close call though. Happy that things are looking up and I can go ON! (Get it? Aren't I so witty?)