The Universe of the Long-Hairs

Day 59

PCT Mile Marker 1727.58 – 1747.9

Miles Hiked 20.32

Crackle-crackle-pop-crackle-crackle

The high voltage lines were menacing overhead.

I felt like I should duck.

I battled the giant dandelions, swatting them with my poles. They disintegrated at my touch, blowing up in a million directions, flying away with the wind.  

Be Gone With Your Bad Self! I hollered.

SMACK.

Thanks. They said. You just helped my babies become productive citizens.

It was hot. Sweat dropped off my nose. My sunglasses were barely staying on my face.

SMACK. Ha-ha!

Finally in the shade of the forest, I came across a faucet in the woods. Potable Water.

Sweet!

I filled up and sat there for a long time because I had internet and phone service.

Turtle showed up and we agreed to camp together.

The plan morphed several times but we finally settled on an actual campground with free showers.

After a long, hot afternoon on super dusty trails, the sweat mudded up my face and we ended up at the campground. A beautiful lake just down from my tent.  

Someone left shampoo and body wash in one of the showers, and I spent a long time deciding whether or not to use the shampoo.

All you short-hairs out there probably don’t understand, but the long-hairs of the world have big decisions to make about shampoo…if there is no conditioner. If I used the shampoo without conditioner, I couldn’t comb out my hair and would have to wait for it to dry.  

I gauged how much light I still had left in the day. Would I be able to dry my hair in sun enough to comb it before I went to bed? How cold would it be tonight? Was I going to freeze to death suffering from Wet-Head-Syndrome? (WHS?)

The warm water ran down my face and tasted of salt from my sweat. I stood there for the longest time.

And I finally used the shampoo.

On my way back to camp, a neighboring camper let me use her hair dryer! So all was well again in The Universe of the Long-Hairs.

I sat on the dock as the sun set, and carefully untaped the bandage on my big toe.  

My toenail came right off with it.

So I put some Bacitracin on the toenail, slid it right back on where it used to live, and taped it back up.

Would it be more protected that way? Or was that just ridiculous and kind of gross?

I wasn’t sure.

But I was really tired.

So that was that.