Miles: 1377.0 | Dehydration hits hard overnight, bringing nausea, cramps, dizziness, and a pounding headache that turn the morning into a slow, discouraging trudge. A long-anticipated waterfall reveals itself as barely a trickle, mirroring the day’s low energy and morale. After listening to my body—and a blunt reminder from my dad—we stop early at Fitzgerald Falls, trading miles for rest. Six liters of water, long naps, and heavy thoughts fill the day, as physical exhaustion opens the door to deeper worries about home, work, and what comes after the trail.
Still dehydrated, I woke up with a massive headache. My left leg had a charlie horse and I was nauseous. The dehydration had gone from mild to moderate pretty quickly. I packed slowly and got going. We walked up the road back to the trail and started hiking. I tripped and fell twice and my leg was cramping hard. I was grumpy. I couldn't eat my breakfast because I was so nauseous. I sat down and told Miles that I really didn't feel like hiking. He'd been in a good mood, though, and I ruined it. We couldn't stop on the rock face we were sitting on so we kept walking. For me it was more like trudging.
Miles didn't wait for me to decide to stop hiking. he went over to the campsites and set up his tent. "If you're this done then I'm done hiking, too." He said defiantly when I lamented that we hadn't gone far enough yet.
I set up my tent next to his and lay down. It felt so good to lay down. But laying down meant I had to sit with my thoughts. It's funny how when you're walking and thinking you usually solve things, thoughts are presented in a better light, trains of thought stay on their tracks better, it's nice.
Four miles later we walked up to what was supposed to be a 'water fall'. I'd seen it on the map ahead a few days ago and was looking forward to it, thinking maybe I'd get to soak my feet!
It was virtually dry. It took me two minutes to gather a liter of water. If it was flowing like a true water fall at its fullest potential it would have taking me less than 15 seconds. I sat by the waterfall and called my parents. My dad told me it was definitely dehydration. "Drink water and lay down." He told me. I was nauseous to the point of losing my appetite.
But when you lay down and stop your body sitting with your thoughts can become daunting, depressing, motivation sapping, and generally just bad sometimes.
I lay there and thought about how little progress I'd made.
I thought about my future: going back home to live with my parents in their small house, working at Starbucks, the idea of having to deal with other people's negativity possibly affecting me, a career, wondering how to love life when I get home. It was a lot. My visit with my sister had been nice, but it got a lot of gears turning.
I fell asleep somewhere deep in my cloud of thoughts. I didn't solve anything in my mind that day. I drank six liters of water, going back to the 'water fall' twice to gather more. We camped by the waterfall all night.