Last night as I lay in the tent listening to the waves and outside conversations I heard someone say the trail is 30% physical and 70% mental. My first thought was to disagree with the percentages. To me, I felt it was a greater physical challenge, but I was definitely struggling with the mental part. I can see how the more mud you go through, the more it makes you feel tired and frustrated. I had to find a way to have a more positive attitude.
I got up around 6:00am because not only was
I slow hiking, but I was slow at getting ready in the mornings too. I could be
a little faster if I slept with my clothes under my pillow and put on my boots
and gaiters right when I was exiting the tent. I still had to learn how to work
the dragon fly stove. Maggie was almost finished cooking breakfast by the time
I was ready. It took a little bit of
extra time to prepare, but our buckwheat (gluten-free) and chocolate chip
pancakes were very tasty. Some of the other campers were calling us the
‘gourmet girls.’
In addition to the mud and tree roots, we
had extra challenges on the trail today that included a series of long ladders
taking us up and down three creek ‘canyons’ and a suspension bridge. Sometimes
I felt like I was on a giant obstacle course for adults. I was developing a
skill to almost intuitively find small logs, rocks, roots, etc. to step on in
the muddy sections of the trail. There was one time I thought instead of
stepping around the mud I could crawl or slither under a fallen log. Instead I
got stuck on my stomach looking as though the tree had fallen on top of me. In
hind sight I should have taken off my pack first, because the weight of it made
slithering next to impossible. However, it seemed to lighten the mood which was
needed at the time.
When we had reached the first set of
ladders, we saw a guy go by wearing toe shoes. They looked a little worse for
wear, patched with duct tape, but the wearer was still happy to have them on
his feet. At the bottom of the series of ladders we ran
into our older friend Bob from the first day.
He was resting and said he felt dizzy. We didn’t see him later on that
day at the next camp site, so I think he was evacuated from the trail. It was a
little sad because we were so close to the turning point where the trail would
become a little less challenging.
Around km 57 we found ourselves in this
kind of clearing. It seemed drier and sunnier. There was a lot of boardwalk and
waist high bonsai trees. Unexpectantly, it was there we ran into the ‘thigh
deep mud’. Maggie was in the lead and she tried stepping on some slanted
boardwalk. Suddenly she slipped off the edge and went deep into the mud. She
was quick to get out, but had mud everywhere. I guess there were some good things
about being at the back. When we finally
got to Walbran Creek, we found ourselves on sandy beach.
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