What an exhausting day today was. I didn't even leave until 730; I planned to camp out White Sands National Monument only 15 miles away. But things changed when I got there. This stretch of 70 is full of military installments: Holloman Air Base, Fort Bliss, a Laser testing base, and of course White Sands Missile Range which is bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware together. The problem arose because they were going to test a missile the day after, so no camping was allowed tonight. So after checking the place out, I had to leave before the sun broke out with full force, but I didn't leave fast enough.
I was out on the road by 1025. The desert sun was really starting to beat down at 11 and after 5 short miles I was feeling it. I was downing a 1/2 liter of water every 3 miles. There were no refills for the next 50 miles so I had to conserve the 4.5L I started with. I couldn't find shade anywhere. There were not even any mesquite trees big enough to create shade. I collapsed by a little one, but the sun was still beating down on me. I
was still drinking water even though I was laying out so I made myself stop. Then I closed my eyes, but the bright sun was penetrating my eyelids and burning my legs. I swear I started to hallucinate.I don't know what it was but I first noticed it when I was looking through a hole in my sweater that laid over my head to shield me from the sun. The hole looked like a rainbow downward spiral. I would open my eyes and zoom in and out into it and it felt like I was going in deeper and
deeper. There was an intense light in the middle of spiral, surrounded by a ring with the colors of light spectrum. Before I knew it I was fast asleep. I started hearing an eagle screech above me but I kept opening my eyes and not a bird was in the sky. The eagle kept soaring and hovering over my body. I woke up to it diving down on me then ripping my heart out of my chest with its sharp talons. It was a pretty shitty dream, I was
checking myself to see if I was ok.By then I checked my watch and it was 210 at about mile marker 197. I had to get a move on. Luckily a thick layer of clouds now covered the sun and a cooler breeze was coming in. It was still hot but there was a slight headwind. The headwind cooled me off but it was slowing me down and exhausting me.At mile marker 172 I ran out of water. I was getting real tired and when I licked my lips I tasted a heavy layer of salt. I had no idea where Aguirre Springs was. It wasn't on either of my maps.
Two younger guys pulled up and asked if I needed a ride. They were from Atlanta and they were roadtripping to LA. They dropped me off at the intersection with Aguirre Springs road which turned out to be just a couple miles further west. I thanked them, and they kept going. Another three mile skate to the Aguirre Springs gate. There, I could reload on water. And when I got there it was 4 more miles to the campground up the mountain. I got here at about 655 and now its time to sleep. No energy even to read. I'm so glad tomorrow is Las Cruces and I'm finally going to chill for the weekend. I'm so exhausted.
i had a dream about night of the living dead this week and i remeber all this shooting at zombies and all the living people were fleeing on boats to live in thwe ocean except i got left behind some how. well the zombies caught up to me and i thought i would be finished, end of the line for me but to my suprise the zombies were only chasing after the living because they needed help and nobody new that. they were total harmless no matter how disfigured they were and then i woke up. i guess it shows you cant judge a book by its cover. as i said before some people are just ignorant so they get afraid of what they dont know.
ReplyDelete