624-Oscar-8

Day 2

A/N Yay! I finally got around to posting! (School's been hell) Right away, I'd like to appologise for the lack of details, I had very little time available to write this, and frankly I have bigger things from the hike on my mind (You will find out Very shortly). Anyways, vote and/or comment if you enjoyed, and if you have any questions to ask, go ahead and shoot. I'll get to you the second I can. Thanks for reading!

-Take2

Last night I dreamed that I woke up in a tent, exactly the same as the green and black hiking tents. The only difference between the dream and real life, in fact, was that in the dream, I was not at Philmont. In the dream, I was in Talihina Oklahoma: our most recent shakedown. During the second morning of our two-day shakedown, rain fell from the sky.

We were cold, we were tired, and the weather would not cooperate with us. Even with our raingear on, every inch of us was soaked, like a crew of large sponges. I dreamed that we were still on that long, hard, and painful shakedown. I was relieved when I woke to discover that the ground around us was dry as dirt, and we would not have to put up with rain (for a while, anyways).

I rubbed my eyes and yawned. I was still tired, but another, longer, hike awaited us. I unzipped and stepped out of my tent. The world around me was exactly as I had remembered, only colder, requiring me to put on my black "Columbia" polar fleece. I yawned again, but this time, a thin cloud of silver vapor exit my mouth. The altitude in the mountains was a bliss of fresh air and atmospheric clarity, but a curse of cold weather in the early mornings and late nights.

I placed my hands around my covered arms, and powered through the cold as we broke camp. We took down tents as quickly as possible and lowered the bear-bags, grabbing our food and passing out breakfast. We ate what we could in less than a minute, and stuffed the rest in our pockets to eat on the trail. I pulled the rain-cover off of my backpack and stuffed my share of the tent inside (I carried the poles and the tarp, while Mark carried the body).

I checked my water bottles. They were full to the brim and purified ready to be drunk whenever I needed. The trek ahead of us was nearly three times longer than what we had done the previous day, so saving water was a necessity. I took a little sip and returned it into the outside pocket on my backpack.

"Is anyone not ready?" El Capitan asked once we all had our backpacks on and adjusted. Nobody said a word, and for the second time, we were hiking.

We took off towards the west, with the rising sun against our packs. We passed our sister crew (624-Oscar-2) and saw that they hadn't even taken down their tents yet. If they didn't break camp and take off soon, the sun would be high in the air, and sending blistering rays of light directly to them.

In our case, it was within our best interests that we get to Dean Cow before eight. Currently my watch read '6:15' according to our ranger Trip, when they read '8:00', the cold breeze would be replaced by the scorch of the sun.

I kept my poles in harmony with my feet while trying to ignore the chilling wind that brushed against my bare skin. Even with my polar fleece, I was still cold.

We started hiking on a narrow dirt trail, carved and flattened by the countless other trekkers that had passed by. But soon, we were faced with a road. Trip had warned us about roads. The foot trails we had taken until then were all flat and fair for hiking travel. Roads, however were not designed with human limitations in mind. They were designed for the use of off-road vehicles. This road we saw ascended at a nearly sixty degree angle.

I took out some of my saved breakfast (packaged beef jerky) and began chewing. We left our packs on and rest for just five minutes, then we began walking. The only thing I could do was put one foot in front of the other, and pretend I wasn't carrying as much weight as I was. My head was pounding and my feet were sore by the time we finally reached the top. I placed my hands on my knees and breathed, I did nothing but breath... then I looked up, and could not breath. The view had taken my breath away.