Day 190
The first night in my new sleeping bag went great! It was a good purchase. It was a beautiful morning. I packed up my things and then tended to Domino and made sure here paws were cleaned and well taken care of before getting started. She was feeling better this morning. It was still hard on her but she knew I’d take care of her. She was having fun out there. We had total freedom. Shortly after we started walking a truck drove by. About 10 minutes later it came back and they asked about us and if we were ok. We talked about the walk and the cause and they gave us some snacks. Domino was excited to see them and also to see their two dogs that were in the truck also. They offered to have us ride in the back for a while and I accepted. I wanted to get to a fork in the road that I remembered from going through their on the water drop trip. It was only a few miles ahead and this would put us in a better situation for Domino.
We hopped in the back and rode to the spot. It was actually a lot longer than I had thought it was going to be. It ended up being close to 18 miles, which is almost like getting a free day. It felt like cheating but Jill and George told me not to worry about it and Domino definitely needed the extra push. They were amazing people. I enjoyed meeting them and I am glad they stopped. They were out there to go pick pine nuts. They went their way and me and Domino went ours.
It was uphill from there. A huge climb that took us a while on the gravel road. But oh em gee it was so beautiful!! We came to the water that I had stored and filled up what I needed and left the rest for another helpless victim of the desert. I looked up and saw a cave. Had to check it out of course. I threw a couple of rocks into it and yelled to see if a mountain lion was going to come pouncing out of it. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. I climbed up to it and went it slowly. I had my flashlight in one hand, a big rock in the other, and a can of bear spray in my back pocket. I was ready for war. I went in and looked around. It was scary but once I realized there was no creepy animals in it I relaxed. I climbed up into this opening and left one of my cards where a few others had tagged their presence before. I found a cool rock and kept it as a souvenir.
I got back down and Domino was still waiting in the shade. Poor thing didn’t even want to come play in the caves with me. I knew she was in pain. I let her ride in the stroller the rest of the day and we found a great spot to camp on the other side of the valley. Meaning that we had to walk up another mountain tomorrow. I can’t push her uphill in the stroller so I wanted to make sure to get her some recovery time in so that she could at least make it to the top and then ride down the other side tomorrow. I broke out the first aid kit and went to work on her feet. She got some rest and stayed up because I wanted to hang out with the stars for a while before going to bed. An experience I’ll never forget. If I ever fall in love, I hope to bring that person with me out here and share the experience of sleeping under these stars with them.