Day 11

This night was by far the worst. I heard I few coyotes off in the distance the first time- no big deal. The second time, I was surrounded. Those eerily high pitched yelps and howls came from behind, in front, and to the right side. I grabbed my phone, thinking about what to say to the 911 operator. No service. I had my knife, but I didn't think that would be too effective against a pack. It was 2:30 in the morning, so two and a half hours until sunrise. The coyotes had plenty of time to move in. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I guess I figured that if they came, I would hear them before they could rip open my tent. So I just clutched my knife, listened, and tried to fall asleep. (Spoiler alert: I didn't get eaten! A few days later, I looked up coyotes and apparently in the United States, there is only one reported case of a coyote killing a human- a three year old girl. Coyotes just want to get away- even when cornered, some will not attack, they will just shy away. Dispite knowing this, there is nothing I've experienced yet that is as unsettling as hearing coyotes yelp and howl while I'm in my tent.)
I wanted to get an early start today, but I didn't get much sleep. I think I ended up being all packed up around 11. I knew I had to make today count- I only had a bit more than I gallon of water to last me. I finally found a rest stop- 2 pumps and a water fountain! Unfortunately, they were completely dry. I wasn't too worried though. The next town was still less than a day away. Plus, I was going by a giant lake, so if something crazy happened, I'd have that. Along the lake, the view was great. To the left, I had a giant cliff. To the right, the lake turned out to be not full of water, but of salt instead. Oops... Well no matter. Once I got down a ways, there were smal patches of water. It finally got hot enough that I tried to go down to it to cool off, but the mud surrounding it made the journey impossible. I wouldn't want muddy water all over me either. I tested in the shade for a while. The wind has been enough to keep me cool so far. It would especially well when going downhill- the speed keeps air moving past you. However, the humidity here made downhills almost unbearable. It was like riding through a sauna. Because of the heat, my water was running out fast. Worst comes to worst, I can always flag down I car and ask for water, but I'd rather not. I kept on going. I finally made it to the real part of the lake- stock full of water. Unfortunately, it was surrounded by houses and fences. There were a few streams that crossed the road, but I knew I was close to the next town. I finally found a store. I bought 4 icecream bars and asked to refill my water. However, they couldn't give me water because they didn't have it tested yet or something. Again, I wasn't worried, even though I was down to just Gatorade, because I knew the next town was really close. Once I finally arrived, I found an rv park that had showers, laundry, and they rented tent spaces. Perfect. Unfortunately, no change machine. So I biked down to the shell station. I refilled my water, bought 35 dollars worth of food, and got 5 bucks in quarters. By the time I left, it was almost dark. But I didn't want to dig around in my pack for my lights, so I quickly peddled back the quarter mile or so to the rv park. I intended on showering and doing laundry that night, but setting up my tent was a challenge. It was crazy windy. My tent actually blew away once- I had to go chasing after it. Once I finally had everything in my tent, I was so tired that I decided I would just do everything in the morning. I fell asleep quickly to the sound of the wind whipping my tent.