SATURDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER 2020; LOON LAKE, CA

We woke up to a nice clear day.  I took Bella out and we walked down to the lake.  There were some people out fishing already.

We are staying in a turn-around-circle at the boat ramp.  There are several RVs here.  We have no hook-ups so we are dry camping and using our solar.  It’s warm, so without electricity we cannot use the A/C which makes it much more pleasant to be outside in the breeze rather than inside.

I’m still feeling shaky this morning.  I tried to drink a lot of water yesterday, but I am getting cramps in my hands this morning, so I am drinking more water and some with electrolytes.  I ate some granola hoping to alleviate the shakes since I never ate very much yesterday.

We rode our bikes over to the Belli camp.  We are going to hike some of the Rubicon trail today.  It is a very famous and popular Jeep run.  Difficult for the jeeps.  Rob and Tony are going to take our Jeep and do the trail later this month.  Joey’s girlfriend also has a Jeep, but neither of them are very experienced at jeeping yet.  So, we wanted to hike and watch.  They wanted to go up to a bridge.  I don’t know where it is, but it is supposed to be about an hour and a half.

We waited for them to get ready and then Rob and I rode our bikes over to the trail.  It was about a mile and a half ride.  They all came in the truck and Mia’s Jeep.  

We met up at the trail and started off.  Right away we came to a spot where a Jeep was stuck and we were watching it get out.  As it turned out, it couldn’t make it over this one particular area and ended up backing out, parking, and going off in his buddies vehicle.

We hiked on.

We came upon this Jeep with its funnily license plate holder!  They often have fun and interesting stuff on their spare tire cover, or written on the Jeep or plate holders.

We hiked for about 2 hours and never reached our destination, but had a really fun time watching the jeeps, and racers and CanAms.  I was really struggling.  I didn’t especially feel hot, but I kept feeling light headed and my legs felt like jello.  

We stopped on a log for lunch.

And a then continued on back.  I’d say down, but it wasn’t down.  It was up and down, with some pretty big ups.

I was having such a tough time.  I kept having to stop and my legs kept feeling so weak and after about 45 more minutes of this I started to throw up.  Oh shit! Heat exhaustion.  We still had another half mile or more to go.  

Rob flagged down a Jeep and asked her if she would give me a ride out.  Betty was her Jeep and her husband, behind her was her husband in “King Kong”. Holly and I had sat and watched them when they were going out.  We commented that she was bad ass and figured that they were together.

Anyway, she happily agreed to drive me out.  Very sweet of her.  It was still slow and go crawling over rocks and the trail, but at least I wasn’t walking.

She took me back to where we parked our bikes.  There were medics there and they brought me some cold water (I had my camel back and had been drinking water the whole time.  I drank a liter while on the trail) and ice.  It was only a few minutes before Rob and Bella arrived, and then the rest of the gang came.  

I rode back in the truck with Tony and Holly.  Joey rode my bike back with Rob.  He liked my bike.

Once I got back I started cramping up.  It was horrible;  back, chest, abdomen, arms legs, hands.  I ate some watermelon, ate some salt, drank water, drank water with electrolytes.  Everything.  I drank 120 oz of water over the next hour.

Rob and the gang went swimming and then back to their camp for burgers and hotdogs.  I, again could not make dinner.  I felt so bad about having the issues and missing out again.  I really wanted to visit with them all and we were all leaving in the morning.  What a pain in the ass.  I had really tried to take care of myself in the morning before we left.  I do not think getting three vaccines all at once is a good idea.

Needless to say, I went to bed.