I assumed I awoke bleary-eyed because I stayed up 'til 2 a.m. reading peoples' Posterouses and leaving comments and writing yesterday's entry. I was okay, if extraordinarily tired, as I rushed to TJ's and the local Mexican market for stuff to make chicken salad sandwiches. Got everything chopped up and packed and ready for Big Basin.
On the car ride, I started to feel really sick--pounding headache, twisted-up insides, feeling like my eyelids were made out of silly putty. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed, and the last thing I wanted was to hike 6 miles in that condition. I'm lucky I didn't sick myself in the car. It wasn't until we found a picnic table and I had my head down and my jacket tented over me when someone pointed out that it may actually be...a hangover. I had never considered this possibility because, a) I have never been hung over in my life and b) I had maybe the equivalent of 2, 2.5 glasses of wine yesterday.
But wait, for someone who gets warm and fuzzy on half a glass of any liquor, and full on drunk on a full glass, I guess 2 glasses, even spaced out over an entire afternoon, was a bit much. Plus, I probably could have drank more water.
I immediately reached for the Nalgene. But in the end, what really kicked the hangover for me was eating the big generous slices of watermelon we had brought with us. Water + Natural Sugar = Amazing Hangover Cure. After that, and after scarfing the best chicken salad sandwich I've ever eaten, let alone made (the secret lay in the addition of ranch dressing), I felt human again.
So I actually managed the 6-7 miles we hiked through the Creeping Forest Trail and Doole Trail. AND I got to see my very first banana slug! Two firsts (well, three actually--never been to Big Basin before) in one day. Not bad! =D
