Day 3 – I’ve lied.

25.3 miles today,

I’ve lied. Did I said Day 2 is always the worst day on a long hike? It is actually Day 3. Day 3 brings with it all the pains of Day 2 plus some as additional niggles start to reveal themselves and the accumulated dirt and sweat of 3 days in the desert introduces some new issues. 

I broke camp just before sunrise, my favourite part of the day. The air was crisp and perfect for getting in a few extra cheeky miles. I was keen to put in 25 miles or so which would mean having a shorter day into town but it risked overdoing the distance leading to injury. 

The sun was just peaking over a far off mountain range on the horizon, throwing off orange and deep red hues. Just enough light to see by eye and not need a head torch. 

I picked up the 2 foot wide trail easily and started ahead putting one foot on front of the other. So far so good, the legs were holding out. A bit of stretching last night has relieved some pain I was having in my left knee. It’s always the left side that gives me trouble. 

Around 4 miles in I could see what I thought was an orange tent. It turned out to be Etieen’s sleeping bag draped over his tent. Seeing me heading pass he came leaping towards the trail full of energy to greet me to Day 3. Such a cheerful fella. We talked through our plans for the day and it looks like we both have a similar objective in mind – to get closer to town tomorrow. 

I pressed on and we continued to leap frog each through day. We didn’t plan on teaming up but both recognised the benefits of safety in numbers out here. He is a much faster walker than me and I always fall behind. I’ve never asked him to wait for me, expecting he will do his own thing but it suits his time outside. Plenty of time to explore and read from his kindle. When ever I catch him he will be doing stretches, lazying about or reading. And when ever he comes up behind me on trail he is singing.

To be honest there weren’t really any highlights for the day as I was struggling in heat and a whole bunch of niggles made themselves know. 

In addition to my left knee, my left achilies heal started playing up, obviously connected to the knee issue and a changes gait or similar. In addition the arches of both feet were starting to flatten out bringing my old mate plantar fasciitis to the party. This is manageable and is something I’ve experienced on every thru hike. 

The afternoon heat was unbearable. It was a battle between being saturated with sweat and the wind drying me off whenever I stopped for short breaks, leaving salt behind.

This photo sums up the day:

Putting sun protection over comfort I choose to wear long hiking pants for this first section but there are a few rub points on my inner thighs that is causing chafing with the salt. They have an attached belt that is causing some rubbing about the hips as well. I reckon I made the same mistake on the PCT with the same pants.

At one point chafing became something that I had to attend to right then and there. If I didn’t catch it early it was going to lead to a whole lot more pain later on. I fair striped down on the spot, wiping away and salt and applying some anti chaff cream. I had come prepared but only have a small amount. It it doesn’t do the trick and I run out I will resort to using lip balm which is a very similar product.

By days end my feet were feeling it and I had to take short breaks every hour or so to just sit on the side of the trail and get weight off my feet.

Coming towards camp there was water to be collected and being in between caches it was time to raid the cow water. Luckily there was a header tank feeding the troughs that could be climbed to dip water from. It still needs to be filtered but at least its not being drawn directly from where the cows were drinking from. I have no idea how cattle grazing in this landscape is possible.