Day 16: I hate snow, mile 200!!

Friday 5/4/12
Miles 183-206 (23 miles)
Elevation 1500'

Holy crap today was an intense day, for so many reasons! Oh, by the way I did not intentionally choose to do 23 miles, it was kind of an accident. Today was also the first day I didn't see anyone all day.

I hate snow. It totally sucks. I don't understand how some of you live with this crap! Lol. Ugh. So I had to traverse through more snow today. It sucked. I was going sooooo slow, and I still fell. 3 times! My poor butt was so cold with all the ice. Gosh I'm so glad to be completely out of snow, for now.

That is part of the reason I ended up doing 23 miles. I dropped about 6000ft today. Wow what a change, it was interesting to see the flora change was I descended. I went from pines to straight up desert. The entire descent was a bunch of switchbacks down this hill, and there wasn't really anywhere to camp. Plus it was super windy. Hence the reason I did so many miles.

But yeah, the best way to describe today would be "intense focus". As much as I dislike snow, I really enjoy situations where every ounce of my being is focused on the task at hand. In today's situation it was 1)not slipping and falling, 2)not losing the trail. This also applied to my descent from the mountain too, because the trail was so narrow/slippery/overgrown at times, with a steep drop on one side. So, that aspect of it was pretty fun for me. I still hate snow though. Lol.

Man, what a change of scenery I had today, in my 6,000' descent. At my highest I was at over 7,500' elevation. Currently I'm at 1,500. Even some of my plastic bottles of liquids puckered from the change in pressure. Trippy huh? I started in pine trees and snow, now I'm in sand and rocks and bushes. Also, I'm right by the I-10 freeway. I don't know if you can see in the pics, but that big fat road is the freeway, and the tall skinny white sticks are the windmills of the wind farm. The railroad is also next tithe freeway. All day on my descent I could hear trains passing. Cool beans.

Tomorrow, I stop by trail angel Ziggy and the Bear's house, for my resupply box and bounce box. Yay!! :)