(written on the… I think partly on the 24th? and definitely on the 25th… from notes taken previously)
How many days will I spend nearly all day trying to catch up on journal entries? 😅
Today was yet another one of those.
I woke up at the trailhead to the rest of the glacial valley. Like all the previous ones, I didn’t even come close to actually getting to the end of the valley. Driving to the end of the road is one thing. Following the glacial valley until the only direction left to go is up, is a completely different story. 🙃
It was a fairly active end of the road.
Saturday. 🙃
But instead of hiking (or doing anything that that would remove me from my van to hang out with the sand flies), I just hung out in my van eyes fixed on my phone, dictating, dictating, dictating.
I will catch up on my journal.
I will. 💪
After a while, I decided that I wanted to move away from the trailhead, so I started driving back down the valley until I saw some tracks through the grass to my left, so I decided to follow them down through some fairly rough and uneven patches until I got almost to the riverbed itself, perching my van so as to be able to overlook the river and the valley to the north.
I was actually still within sight of the trailhead.
And there I stayed. Nearly all day. Journaling. 😶
It’s just so crazy to me how much time it’s taking. Holy. Freaking. Crap. 😅 I barely even took breaks today, very little veging of any kind. 😲 I’m just plowing through as best I can.
Something a friend of mine said a few days ago, or so, has been weighing on me.
I’ve been running from doubt and fear and pain… drowning my sorrows in choices that aren’t consistent with my beliefs and integrity (which, of course, is clear to any of you who know me and read regularly).
I think I’m gonna go to church on Sunday.
…
I don’t remember when I started driving back to civilization, it was still light outside, but I think getting later?
Gratefully, the drive back didn’t give me any issues, despite the craziness of the road in spots. I did pull over to the side on the large wash section, as the only vehicle to pass me on the entire drive back of course showed up right as I was on the most challenging part of the whole route. 😆
I headed back, even though I had a guaranteed spot to sleep up there in the river valley, because I didn’t have access to any cell or internet signal, and if I was going to go to church the next day, I wanted to be at least somewhat near a church.
Most one-congregation locations start at 10:00 in the morning, so I figured it would be best to be out of the canyon, past all the obstacles, and ready to just head to church.
Weeeeeeeell… What I didn’t expect, upon getting to signal range and looking up church locations was that the nearest one, even after being out of the canyon, was a long way away. 😶
And there weren’t any freedom camping places listed near me in CamperMate, but it was almost dark by then, and I didn’t want to be driving through landscape at night without being able to see it. Seeing everything is one of my main desires while here.
Which leads me to recognize how grateful I am that I can see. 🙏
I sat there, a bit discouraged, staring at the map, how far away both the church was and how far away the nearest freedom-camping spot was.
Admittedly, the way my brain works, I also choose to be a little irritated with God, like “hey, I’m trying. This is hard for me, and this is what I get?”
😅
As I sat there planning, I noticed that a large pickup truck that had its hazards on a fair ways up the road was not going anywhere, so I decided to drive over to see if there was anything I could do.
There were a couple of I think Chinese? gentlemen in the vehicle, but the issue was they had two flat tires and were going to need a tow and were just waiting for the tow truck.
Not much I can help with if you’ve got two flat tires. 😬
So I swung back around to the little turnaround spot at the end of the gravel road right before you get back on the main highway and continued my planning efforts.
I kicked myself for leaving a sure place to stay, despite my honorable reasons.
On the map, I saw that there was a nearby pullout with a trail going up into the mountains. If it was a DOC trail, and there was no camping-prohibited sign, and it wasn’t listed as a recreation or scenic reserve, then legally, I should be able to stay there.
So I drove over there, and it was a DOC trail, and I didn’t see any no camping signs, and it wasn’t any of the automatically-prohibited locations, so on theory, I was good to go.
Except there wasn’t much of any parking room, and that trail entrance looked like it shared a road with a local station (the rest of the road being private).
Though I really wanted a place to stay that was nearby, I just didn’t feel comfortable staying there, right off the loud main highway, potentially in what felt like someone’s driveway.
Gratefully, I remembered that there were freedom-camping locations listed on the DOC website that weren’t on the CamperMate app, so I looked at the list, and quite surprisingly, there was a spot just 20 minutes, or so, down the road in the direction I wanted to go anyway.
🥳
So I headed back up the road to Omarama, through the tiny town, over a bridge, and into the very large free campground. 🙏
I veged out for a bit, watching a few episodes of a TV show about a cop who’s also a serial killer (killing bad guys who get away with murder).
It was quite disturbing to me.
I won’t be watching anymore of that.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 