Day 25 I can walk!

Miles hiked: 9.63 + .63 (off trail)

Camped at: mile 228.18

Hikers I camped with: 2

Total up/down: 2,162' / - 850'

Steps: 31,273

I can't believe I can walk.

No seriously.

I'm shocked.

I woke up this morning and did the usual stretching of my feet, I looked at my foot and was surprised there was no bruising and it wasn't very swollen. I had to go to the bathroom so it was time to test it out. I crawled out of my tent, stood up and put weight on my foot. I could walk on it. I'm pretty sure at that moment I had the look of shock on my face. 

There were some hikers sitting under the overhang of the bathroom, turns out they got soaked last night. At least 3 of them hadn't brought the rain fly for their tent, you know, because it never rains in the desert. Several people had slept in the bathrooms and the rest were under the picnic shelter. Some had slept on top the tables. It seemed everyone got wet. I guess I can be thankful that except for a couple drops, I stayed dry. I'm pretty happy with my tent! I soon saw Andrea and was happy to hear she stayed dry as well, she was happy to hear my foot was good. 

The Ranger station opened up and allowed people to come in and sit in the back area that had tables, it was warm and dry. I had to let my tent dry so I had packed up all I could and the rest was drying. I had my lunch in the ranger station and we got ready to head out. There was talk of a thunderstorm coming our way so many had decided to stay at the Preserve, about 7 people decided to brave the storm.

The weather was perfect for hiking. It was cool and crisp, with partial clouds. The start of the walk was across a flat valley, then we would start gaining altitude but continued to walk up the valleys. Today we would be following a river so water was abundent, what a treat. 

When we first saw the river it was wide and kinda spread out there was only one part that we actually had to walk on rocks to cross, 3 rocks actually, and it was just a couple inches deep. I told Andrea to wait, I would cross first then film her crossing. So I moved quickly jumped from one rock to the next, and slipped, and fell into the water. Half my body was completely soaked, I had basically laid down in the water. I failed my first real river crossing. Failed! I knew better, I knew how to use my hiking poles for support and to make sure each step is secure before taking the next. I did none of that. Andrea crossed the river like a pro. There was a bit of laughing happening as I dropped my pack and took off my shirt. I was wearing my wool leggings so I left them on to dry in the sun, but my shirt was cold against my skin, I put on my wool sleep shirt and was all nice and warm. How embarrassing. Luckily since I had prepared my pack for rain nothing got wet. 

The rest of the day was great hiking, the thunderstorms never came and I thought about all those people sitting at the preserve for no reason. We had picked a spot that we wanted to camp for the night but as it got dark we found that crossing back and forth over the river was getting more difficult.  We came upon a hiker camped on a small flat spot and decided to just stay there and squeeze out tents in. He was already in his tent and probably a little annoyed by us coming along at night and setting up just feet from him but out here that's how it goes. 

We went to sleep listening to the sounds of the river.