March 22: I got to sleep in that morning g because I had what was going to be one of my easiest days of my whole trip, it was only about 7 miles. I couldn't hike any farther because my cousin was planning on hiking with me a few days later so I needed to be somewhere he could meet me. Sharron made breakfast and then I packed up and me and Gene headed out to the base of 4 peaks. He dropped me off right across from the Roosevelt dam, which wasn't exactly where he had picked me up but It's close enough. We took some pictures and I said goodbye to their dog, who I forgot to mention in my last blog post. Her name was Zoe and she was old and cute. I started my hike and it quickly got very steep and I was having a rough time. I ran across a couple of girls, one was traveling the country documenting and raising awareness for public lands. She took a picture of me and I gave her my Instagram. She posted a photo of me and now I follow her and watch her journey. I'd tell you to check her out but as I'm typing this I have no service so I can't look up her name. As I continued some storm clouds rolled in and it began raining on and of, as I got closer and closer to the mountains the storm became worse and worse, it started poring buckets. I only had a small emergency poncho with me because it wasn't supposed to rain that week. I came to a trail head and could see a car with a trailer in the distance, I was saved! It was something I could hide behind until the storm passed. As I got closer and closer to the truck it began hailing, small stones at first but they quickly became almost golfball sized hail, they hurt me even though I was wearing a jacket, pancho and long sleeves. I cowered on the side of the trailer but the hail was almost coming straight down. I was in pain and couldn't do anything about it, I thought the trailer might be open but noticed a large lock on the door. I thought I might as well try the car and to my luck the drivers door was open. I crawled inside and got a break from the wind, hail and the freezing cold. I took a snack break while trying to wait the storm out, I took a half nap and after about 2 hours the storm cleared. The effect was beautiful, the hail had made the whole area have the allusion of a powdering of snow. It was actually massive hailstones but whatever. I made it to camp a little too early, I think around 4. I set up shop and climbed a small hill to get cell service to call my family and girlfriend. I cooked my dinner up there and spent a few hours there. Despite that I still went to bed early that night.
March 23: it was a pretty standard day, Hiked some, met some guys, hiked more. One of the guys names was Mando because he carried a mandolin with him everywhere. I hiked right around the tops of four peaks, and thank goodness I didn't go over them. They are very shear near the tops. I came to a small, sort of gross looking, hole called pigeon spring. It was the only water in the area so I had to camp there. I went about a forth of a mile up the trail to where it intersects a road, this is where I was going to meet my cousin Mitchell tomorrow so I had to pin my location to it so he could find it. I went back down to my campsite and grabbed my dinner and cooking gear. Then went back up the trail to call people while I ate and made dinner. That night was the first time I counted the calories of what I was eating and I had over 1500 that night. Which sounds like a lot but a realized was probably way less than I was using in a day, which explains why I'd been loosing weight. I went back down to camp and had a very cold night. I remember not being able to sleep that night and listening to the absolute quite. There wasn't a sound around me, no cars, no insects, not even a breeze, complete silence. It was a very strange but beautiful thing. March 24: I woke up late that day, I was supposed to meet Mitchell pretty soon after I woke up. I scrambled to pack up and didn't have time for breakfast. I got the the meeting point, the pigeon spring Trailhead, a little late. Mitchell and my aunt Julie were supposed to meet me there but they hadn't shown up yet, it worked perfectly because that gave me time to eat my breakfast, granola and blueberries. Mitchell and my aunt got there soon enough and all 3 of us hopped in the the truck. I guess you could say I cheated for a bit, but I didn't really care, it was a long stretch of dirt road which wouldn't have been the most exiting few miles. My aunt dropped us off and me and my cousin started hiking. The day felt really fast, we walked along a road for a while and didn't get to a real trail till over halfway though the day. We talked about everything under the sun and Mitchell brought a speaker so we could listen to music. The four peaks area was very cool, there was lots of water and it was a calm, cool day. We started going down the mountain and we joked that all the green in the area made it seem like the green hills from The Sound Of Music. We sang "the hills are alive With the sound of music" over and over again. As we came down the mountain we could see the highway we were going to end at miles before we actually got there. We were making really good timing, we got to the spot we were supposed to get picked up at hours before we thought we would. We took some pictures of Sycamore Creek, one of the many I had already passed, I guess people in Arizona aren't very good with naming places. We got picked up in a little "town" called sunflower. I had to be picked up there too because I my aunt and cousin were flying in from Oregon to hike with me, but they couldn't get a flight in till the next day. So I had/got to take a 0 day in Phoenix, where my aunt lives. On our way into Phoenix me and Mitchell got post-work-out smoothies. Then we went back to my aunts house, I got a shower, and Mitchell and I went to Genghis Grill, which was super amazing. Though we parked a little far away and walking killed my feet. I got to bed nice and early that night such is always nice. March 25: 0 day. I spent the day with family and met up with my aunt Beth and cousin, Sophia who came In from Portland. We drove to the outskirts of Phoenix so we could get back to sunflower early the next morning.
