There is no way to sleep longer than 7h00 because all the hikers that leave in the morning have to pack up their tents and they will make noise, a lot of noise.

 

After getting up I trotted around in the camping area for s bit before making myself some breakfast. If tortillas with nutella counts as making breakfast 🙂

 

At 10h00 we started a trip to REI, a local hardware store for backpackers. I needed new pants because mine broke a few weeks ago and I haven’t had the time to fix or replace it.

 

The shorts were very expensive, but there was only one model that fitted me needs for 58$… I got a drybag for my sleeping quilt and a new pair of socks.

 

We left to get back to hikerheaven and the driver surprised us with a visit of the IN & OUT BURGER. I dont know why he made us take the order back into the car instead of waiting 10 minutes and everyone could have eaten his burger inside. Trailangels work in mysterious ways 🙂

 

Back in Hikerheaven we got out again into Agua Dulce to buy beer for our challenge. Pickles and I are gonna try the 24/24/24 challenge.

24 hours
24 miles
24 beers

 

 

We got the cheapest beer available and got back to hikerheaven. After a few hours of hanging around we ordered Pizza, what else. At 20h00 we started our challenge.

 

Pickels drank 8 beers before going to sleep and I drank 6. We fell into out tents with the alarm set for 6 am.

I woke up even before my alarm because the hikers were making to much noise while preparing their tents.

 

I drank the first beer before leaving my sleeping quilt, the second while packing all my stuff together and the third while waiting for the shuttle to leave to town.

 

 

This was at 6h30, leftover pizza and beer for breakfast 🙂

 

While horny toed was away from her tent for a minute I lured a chicken in her tent with crumbs of my pizzacrust.

 

 

Needless to say that she wasn’t as amused as I was 🙂

 

 

The first 2 miles were just roadwalking and kind of boring, but the I already felt that the day would be very hot. For european standards this is just over the scale! At 8 in the morning you are sweating and wishing for a pool to jump in an cool down.

 

 

At the trailhead where I left the road I drank two more beers before heading into the mountain. 3 hours of climbing followed be half a mile of going down before I ran into the first and only water source for the day.

 

There was a huge black rattlesnake next to the water and I got these fantastic pictures of it 🙂

 

 

 

3 beers later I had filled up 5 liters of water and was heading out again. Only 15 minutes after the water there was trailmagic in form of hotdogs and bars served in the shade.

 

 

It is still inbelievabel that random people are doing this as an act of kindness even though they dont know you and will never see you again.

 

The rest of the day was extremely hot, no shade at all and a lot of elevation. No need to say that it was a rough day for everyone. Even those who didn’t compeed in the challenge had trouble walking trough the heat of the day.

 

 

Afterthe last climb I had a break, drank 3 more beers, leaving me with 2 more to drink and than I started hiking the last section for the day.

 

It wasn’t to bad and I had enough time left before 20h00 but I decided to push myself hard to see what I am capable of and I did the ladt 4,5miles in just under a hour 🙂

 

Because I did ran through the last sectio I lost my trailfamily and had to wait for them. I drank the two of my last beers relax next to the road, proud of myself to have mastered the challenge 🙂

 

Just after we were complete a truck showed up and offered us a ride. The lady was going to Casa de Luna too, so we jumped in the back of the truck and she drove of.

 

It was already dark when we arrived but we still got nachos with cheese, chicken, salsa and jalapenos 🙂

 

After dancing to get the official trail-bandana I went to set up my tent in the magical forest and went straight to sleep because, well I drank 18 beers today and still did 24 miles.