Day 308

Day 308 (AZT 13): 32 miles

Today was more pleasant. In the morning I got water for the first time in 20 hours cause I kept passing water sources cause they were off trail. I finally couldn’t take it anymore and had to take a half mile detour to get some. It tasted interesting. It had a sort of rusty or irony taste. It kinda reminded me of the odd tasting well water at the farm back home.

I exited the Mazatzal Wilderness today and wasn’t sad to see it go. The area I was in this morning was much better than yesterday but I was ready to get that bad taste out of my mouth. A local later told me its nickname is the “Mad as hell.” Seems fitting to me.

I felt like I was a sinner in Egypt today (might need to brush up on my biblical history if that’s wrong.) The crickets were going crazy today. They were flying around all day and kept hitting me. One bit me which didn’t hurt but felt strange. There was one area near a riverbed where there were so many I probably had 15 on me at any given time. They were swarming like a 2000s Raven’s defense.

I met a thru hiker today that was headed northbound (unusual for this time of year.) He caught just as I was coming out of the worst part of the rocky area so I was complaining about how rocky it was. He told me it’s bad all the way to Mexico. I was disappointed for a little bit then I remembered one of the biggest lessons I learned this year. Never listen to anyone. My motto out here isn’t trust but verify, it’s distrust until verified. Everybody is so different, and everyone’s experiences are so different, and everyone’s perceptions are so different. There have been countless times this year where somebody has told me something that turned out to be extremely overblown or just flat out wrong. So after contemplating his bad news for a few minutes I realized I shouldn’t care. To future thru hikers out there, here’s a fun piece of advice you won’t hear many other places, everyone’s full of shit and don’t trust anyone. Or at least take what they say with not a grain of salt but half the weight of the Dead Sea. Especially someone headed in the opposite direction.

The rest of the day was much less rocky and much more pleasant than yesterday :) even though I think the mileage on signs is in incorrect I think I passed the halfway point today.

Song of the day: so far away-avenged sevenfold