Day 25: We've been lucky
If it hadn’t been like that, I wouldn’t be here writing this morning. I can’t say I’m feeling great, but it seems that the fever has passed, even though my appetite hasn’t returned yet (it’s been eighteen hours since I last ate).
I woke up at the usual time, around 6am, now accustomed to the routine in the tent. There would be several things to do today, but we’ll have to see how we feel. We also need to manage the reservation of the chalet we’re in – found at the last minute yesterday before turning back and canceling the last section of the trail to Big Bear Lake – and figure out how much time we’ll need to recover. We left last Sunday from Banning, and crossing Mission Creek plus the San Gorgonio Mountains was a great effort: it’s not normal that after these four days, the body doesn’t need calories. Even now, sitting in the armchair in the living room, I feel my stomach upside down, as if it were digesting the two measly tortillas with tuna from yesterday.
We discovered that Alex, one of the group of Germans we’re walking with, was sick last night. It’s unlikely that something so quick is due to bacteria in the water; more likely, it’s an intestinal virus1. But how did we get it? Who passed it to us, given that none of us share food or water and we’re constantly outdoors?
There is one positive thing: we’re in a city that’s big enough and equipped with all the essential services, including medical guards and pharmacies. But above all: yesterday we made the best choice we could make, giving up on continuing and finding a way to get ourselves off the trail as soon as possible. I don’t even want to imagine what last night would have been like if we had spent it in a tent. Sick.
The responsible virus has been identified as a strain of the norovirus family, which causes the worst gastroenteritis.↩