Day 24
Miles 5.5
It was warm before the sun even touched the tree tops with it’s itty bitty finger tips.
You sure have a lot of stuff, one older woman said as we walked by. It was the nine thousand, four hundred, and fifty third time we’d heard that from someone, but for some reason today was the last straw.
We railed about it for an hour.
Of course it’s a lot of stuff. Is that meant as a compliment or a criticism? If you can’t say something nice…
People don’t know what we carry unless they ask, and we are happy to share. We love talking about all the gear we need to have for a trip like this. We are total gear junkies. But to just judge us as we pass by is a rotten thing to do. Trying to shame us for bringing extra? Yes, we have luxury items. I have a fleece jacket thing. We have little collapsible chairs. I have a nicer knife than normal, and hot chocolate instead of just tea. I do carry things that weigh a little more.
We can have little extras because we have goats. But bring any four animals into the wilderness and they need gear for themselves.
The goats have two large tarps for when it rains. They have the highline with tethers they are attached to while they sleep at night. They have medications and salves and vitamins and minerals. They have a food and water bowl and extra water and goat coats they wear at night. Bandanas. A Brush. An electric fence with wiring and stakes and a pulsator.
Everyone here has gear.
So yes, it’s a lot of stuff. And we love all of it, Madame Obvious.
Joshua brought the truck and trailer and loaded us all up to take us two miles across busy roads and through neighborhoods and back to the trail junction out into the wilderness. He and Sophie dropped the trailer and drove the truck out to do a water cache for us for the night before we’re done. They came back two hours later, dusty and exhausted and shining with success.
The road goes right across the trail. Sophie said. It’s perfect.
So we dumped most of our extra gear that woman tried to shame us about this morning and made room for water instead.
It’s not going to rain and it’s warm, so we left the tarps and the goat coats in the truck. We left our extra clothes and the bear cans and our chairs and rain clothes and odds and ends behind and gathered water.
And then we were off into the wilderness again. Where we felt like we belonged.
And Sophie found the perfect spot again. To me it looked like just some downed logs in the forest, but by the time Eagle Eye was done with it, it was A Cozy Fortress Home once again.