Backpacking Training Trip: California Riding and Hiking Trail, Joshua Tree NP, Day 2

Warning: This post contains gross feet pictures

I'm not going to lie, last night was pretty rough. Despite using a large juniper tree as a wind break, the wind was whipping my tent back and forth pretty vigorously most of the night. It was staked into sand so I was afraid if I got out of it, the stakes would rip the tent out of the ground and it would go sailing away. I had to time my bathroom trips to when there was a lull in the wind gusts.

It was cold too. There ended up being only one sleeping position that I could get myself into in order to stay warm. It wasn't necessarily the most comfortable position either, so I'm not sure how much sleep I got. By the amount of fluid I could feel around my eyes, I'm guessing it wasn't much.

When I woke up around dawn, the wind had completely stopped. My rain fly wasn't even fluttering. Birds were singing beautiful morning songs. Even so, I was pretty annoyed when I packed up my tent to leave. The outside of my tent had a nice layer of frost coating it. It was very pretty, but I needed to stop three times to rewarm my hands while taking it down. I tried to shake as much of the frost off as I could, but ended up having to wrap the tent up while wet. I didn't worry about setting up a wet tent that night because I had decided to walk back to my car a day early, making this a two day trip instead of a three day trip.

Morning tent frost.

Because I have a history of foot injuries, and considering this was only a training trip, I decided last night to head back home today and do a little foot tlc. It didn't make sense to me to injure my feet before the real trip even started. I haven't been doing a good job of stretching my hamstrings and calves after hikes which usually leads to pain in the arches of my feet from those connections being too tight. This was actually a good reminder that I need to make a habit of stretching regularly while attempting multiple day hikes. I also wasn't too upset about heading back early considering the goal of this trip was to do 20 mile days with a full pack on. Heading back early still gives me two consecutive 20 mile days.

Considering it was still pretty cold, I decided to keep my base layers on under my hiking clothes, at least temporarily. I headed back through the junipers and assorted desert shrubs to where the trail was. As soon as I stepped onto the path, I looked a couple feet down and saw a man who had just stepped on the path as well, but from the other side. Apparently we had been camping near each other, thinking there was no one else in the area. He had found a nice, large boulder to use as a wind break. Lucky dude. We exchanged pleasantries, remarked about the windy night, and headed in opposite directions.

A cold but beautiful morning.

I blew past my water cache in the morning light. I still had a full hydration bladder from when I filled it up the night before. I then blew past Ryan Campground and started rounding the trail behind Ryan Mountain.  The first three miles flew by and were fairly cold, but still pleasant. Then the wind started again. It was no where near as bad as the night before, but it was enough to “trigger” me. A bad attitude will really ruin a hike. All of a sudden all I could focus on was how heavy my backpack felt, and how “painfully” it was digging in my shoulders.

There next few miles consisted of an internal struggle. I kept trading off between remaining calm and enjoying my surroundings, and adjusting that annoying backpack. My goal for today was to take it really slow and easy, giving myself plenty of breaks and chances to stretch my legs. So, really, the goal was to get back to my car without reactivating my plantar fasciitis problems.

I ended up really enjoying the mini breaks. It was nice to just sit for a minute and enjoy the beauty of the desert. It also gave me temporary relief from my imaginary backpack issue. Filled with the full 3 L of water, my backpack was at maximum 30 lbs. That is a little heavy for backpacking, but not as terrible as I was convincing myself it was. I even dumped out some water to make it a bit lighter. I was definitely carrying more water than I needed to get back to my car.

Scenery headed east on the CRHT.

I made it past Geology Tour Road and decided to picnic on a couple of rocks a few miles from the Twin Tanks road crossing. I thought I kept hearing laughter while I was eating. When I was thinking that it must have been sound carrying (very far) from the roadway areas, I noticed a group of people walking towards me. It was an entire classroom size (~30) group of school kids. Here I was tired and cranky, eating my lunch, and they come bouncing along in their day packs. They were screaming, laughing, and singing their favorite rap songs.

I figured they had to have come from Geology Tour Road and I was hoping they were ending their trip at Twin Tanks. I couldn't imagine them going all the way to the north entrance with their day packs. It was at least 4 miles (maybe more) between those two roads and I couldn't imagine any of my school classes I belonged to being able to do 4 miles in the first place.

I took my time eating lunch and let the noisy hoard put some distance on me. Sure enough, there was a big yellow school bus at the backcountry registration board at Twin Tanks. I made it past the road crossing and headed north, passing really cool boulder formations as well as Belle Campground.  When I got to the last of the boulders (and before the hill I slid down yesterday), I took another mini break within 6 miles of the end of the trail. In the past, 6 miles would have been “finish mode” for me, but I have been enjoying taking lots of breaks today. I even laid down on a flat rock for a bit.

Boulders near Belle Campground.

I crossed the hill without incident this time and hit the home stretch to the North Entrance. This was probably the most frustrating part of the hike because I was so close, it was all through loose sand, the scenery wasn't changing much, and I kept convincing myself I needed to stop and pee every mile and a half. Also my feet were starting to hurt.

I put my headphones on and tried to relax and zone out. I also tried to convince myself not to continually look for my car and that I would just get there eventually.

I was really happy when I finally did see my car. The first thing I did was rip my shoes off. I have never seen my feet so swollen. My toes were definitely sausages. I laid in the back of my car for a couple minutes to let the swelling go down. This is definitely a sign that I need to have a better foot care routine when hiking.

This does not only look gross, it feels awful.

Eventually I put my sandals on, drove to the Juniper Flats lot where I retrieved my water cache, and headed home. My feet were pretty swollen the whole time, but at least rush hour traffic wasn't too bad. That's almost a miracle in southern California.