As I mentioned before, the stretch from the Gila to Roosevelt Lake was tough. It had some of the steepest ups and downs of the trail to date, as well as some long water carries. Often the trail was full of large, sharp, loose rocks. And even when the terrain leveled out a bit, it was still tough because it kept climbing up and down into a wash, many, many, many times. This entailed 8 to 15 feet of steep up then a little bit of flatter walking and then another 8 to 15 feet of dropping down into a rocky wash. Then I had to pick my way across the rocks, find the place where the trail leaves the wash and repeat over and over and over again.

On this stretch I met up with a friend I had only previously known from an online group we’re both a part of. He and his adopted family of special needs young adults picked me up and took me out for a lovely lunch before returning me to the trail. It was nice to be full, but it sure made it hard to walk the rest of that afternoon.

Some days it was really hot on the trail and I hiked with my umbrella to provide shade. But in the evenings, it would get cold enough to freeze, so I’d have to remember not to slack off and forget to put my water filter in my sleeping bag.

An interesting thing that happened on this stretch was that I got poked by an agave. I almost fell into it and was able to catch myself, but not before I got poked in the hand and the leg. Luckily, the hand poke was fairly small, but the one in the leg gave me a significant puncture wound. Within about 30 seconds I felt like my calf was burning. And then I thought I must be making this up, which is a common reaction for people who have been through a lot of trauma. We often think we’re making it worse than it is or we’re making it up, but that evening camped near a cow trough I knew I wasn’t imagining it because my leg was red and swollen. I took two aspirin to numb the pain and got a pretty good night sleep.

In the morning my leg was still burning, and even though the profile looked like it would be an easy walk it was anything but easy because of the continual drops in and out of the wash. So eventually, I sat down near a pleasant little stream and decided I would take my time getting to Roosevelt Lake. After washing my face in the stream and eating some food I finally ambled on.

As I neared the marina, where I was going to meet trail angel Becky, I could see the blue lake straight in front of me and down. But in the last mile, the trail did a 180 and for 4/10 of a mile rather than going downhill, it climbed away from the lake. I knew that eventually I would have to go down in the opposite direction. I recognized that I could either be frustrated or just accept the curveball the trail was throwing my way. It made me think about life and the curveballs that have gotten thrown at me. When I stopped hating them and learned to accept them and make the best of things life definitely felt easier.

I knew that even though I would have to lose the elevation I was now gaining every step forward was bringing me closer to my end goal, even if for a time it was bringing me further away.

When I reached the marina, I did some calorie loading at the small store there. Then I enjoyed sitting in the shade waiting for Becky to pick me up. I did some research and found that sure enough agave is known for injecting a kind of toxin into the body and creating pain and soreness for a long time. Luckily mine is dissipating in a matter of days.

Often on this stretch, I didn’t stop to take pictures because I was so focused on getting up and down the difficult terrain. When I caught myself thinking “oh yeah that’s a pretty flower whatever” and just walked past it, I forced myself to slow down and make a conscious memory of it, even if I wasn’t going to stop and pull out my camera. I tried once to pull out the camera on the uphill and then found it just too tough to get going again. On the downhill it felt too dangerous to let go of my polls for a minute. For the entire downhill I had to hyperfocus on my feet so that I didn’t go sliding down the mountain.

It has been really great being here at Becky’s oasis. She’s been able to give me the names of a lot of the flowers I did not know. I was able to get to the post office and mail some things I didn’t need ahead. Today I did some more serious calorie loading by eating 3/4 of a pound of fried chicken tenders followed by an entire 830 calorie pint of ice cream. I have really had time to rest and I feel like tomorrow I’ll be ready to face the next steep section of trail. It’s wonderful what a rest can do for the mind and body.