Titanic Water

Day 4 National Parks 2011

Yesterday’s water from the canteen was still hot with steam this morning at 5:11am.  The rain continued in the morning.  I am glad my rainfly held up.  Oh Mountain Hardwear, how dare I, who dared to have doubted your performance.  There is a reason why you are a three season very expensive tent.  And even after the beatings of last summer’s Arches National Park daily strong 50 mile per hour wind, you held it together, bent and deformed, but still intact!  I am proud of you, tent!

I ate Yaoshan instant noodle for breakfast with nori strips and a scoop of chocolate spread with darjeerling tea and sugar.  The sugar bag popped and there was sugar scattered in the food bin.

The sky was sunny and windy today.  At 10am, I set out for Cub Lake.  I came across Susan from North Carolina who is an occupational therapist.  Who I picked up right away as someone who is fatigued and sad about her life because she gives continually to others and not to herself.  Somehow only seems to speak one language of love.  As a result, so she didn’t and couldn’t receive love given to her by others in different languages.  I also picked up on how she wanted a reading.  I telepath her to chat with nature and get her answers.  That I am off duty, I am on vacation, and I am not picking up clients on vacation.  Later that evening I ended up telling her about me, to get the demand off me.  She said I inspired her.  That I give out of strength not in need, not out of poverty. 

10:35am I was at the start of the trail.  I did about 7 mile hike.  The trail was beautiful with Colorado River through the meadow, and Aspen trees on the trails.  The trail was mostly incline.  Parts of the trail was flooded and I had to climb and step carefully.  It was quite adventurous and fun.  A section had a big snow patch and a kid went crazy happy over the snow.  There were ants that bite and some other small insects with wings that bite too.  Ouch!

Rangers were building a horse parking area on the trail.  It was interesting to watch them work. 

Cub Lake was amazingly beautiful with the mountain as backdrop.  The lake was full of lily pads in a circular ring pattern.  The sound of frogs were music to my ears.  So was the sound of the creek running along the trail.  I swung out to the Cub Lake campsite to get a different view of the mountain and the lake.  

I walked through the mud and slush.  I had to cross logs, branches, and roots.  It was an off trail kind of deal.  It's all very exciting to explore and quite adventurous to me.  I fell through a section of snow and got my foot stuck underneath the snow.   That section of the snow covered logs and branches that locked my ankle in.  It was super reckless of me.  It’s a good thing I brought more than one pair of shoes, jacket etc… for this trip.  I got pretty physically bruised and scratched today on my off trail adventures.  I don't mind, it's part of this journey.   

I saw a yellow puffy bird with red beak.  Also a magpie bird with black tailcoat and a blue breast wing and white shirt chest with very long tail.

In my 5^th hour of hiking I found myself very fatigued.  I was getting sloppy with my footing.  My toes got caught in walking and tripping everywhere, it was a dangerous way to be on trails so late in the day by myself.  It is easy to make survival mistakes during such times.  I prayed that I wouldn’t. 

I dipped my feet in the river.  It was Titanic water.  Three seconds and my body wanted to hurl over into the river as a muscle reflex of contracting to the cold and pain.  I felt my head would pass out from this.  “No way!” was what I thought about people who fell or jumped into the Titanic water as it sank.  I did this three times to relieve pain and inflammation.  It just felt right, perfect to do so.  Like a religious cleansing, a transformative ritual, I prayed as I dipped my feet in the water  

Then I sat on a boulder in the meadow and recited Buddha’s name.  I asked the wind to bring light and dharma to all directions of the Dharma Realms, and speed up the healings.   

5pm was dinner time and I had Punjab Eggplant and Aloo Mutter, green tea and a scoop of chocolate spread.  

I was all set for bed by 9am.  I decided to shower in the family restroom.  It was cold and the process took a long time.  I had to keep re-boil the hot water for use.  Each time I stood to wait, I shivered in the cold.  The light would go out on its own out of sensory auto on and off detector.  I would have to jump up and down, wave my towel to try to get the light to come back on.  My eyes burned red from fatigue, my pelvis, back, and spine all felt sore. 

Today I hiked 7 miles

Time on trail 6 hours

Ate 2,000 calories