The Desert is Dry

Sitting in the public library of Julian, CA it's hard to sum up the last week. When we arrived in San Diego, Evan and I got picked up at the airport by Girlscout, a former thru-hiker and Trail Angel. He let us stay at his house, drove us to the trail head in the morning, and gave us a copy of the water report - amazingly helpful out here where most natural water sources are dry.

Our first day out was scorching hot. We hiked 20 miles from the border to Lake Morena. It was beautiful, relatively flat and easy hiking until we got to the 10 mile point (which I had thought was the 15 mile point - fatal mistake). Then it got really hot. We saw our first rattler on a jeep road, continued past a creek in the hottest part of the day up a 1000 foot climb only to cross two more rattlers mating and quite possibly the longest five miles of my life. I was soooo tired. Luckily the Lake Morena campground has beer and ice cream. We also met a couple of other hikers we camped with the next night.

Day two we cut the heat by jumping in a creek with all of our clothes on - air conditioning for the next hour or so. That night we camped with A-Frame and Gnar from Eugene, OR. I also saw more poison oak than I thought could possibly grow in one place.

Day three we only did about ten miles, took a long nap and had a big meal in the little mountain town of Laguna, CA. And as it turns out, taking a day to rest makes a huge difference because I have been feeling so much stronger and more energetic since then.

Day 4 we did 20 miles again, making it through our first waterless section to a cache in the middle of nowhere. It's frustrating that we end up carrying so much more water than we really need on the offchance that one of the caches in the guidebook is not stocked. We could get by with 2 liters easily, but if it's not there, we'll need 5 each to last us 2 days. Day 4 was pretty windy and so far it hasn't changed. On Day 5 we hiked 10 miles into town to restock on food and fuel and ended up staying the night both to avoid the storm and to hang out with about 10 hikers who had decided the same. The storm seems so be passing, as we head out this afternoon, but we'll be keeping our fingers crossed.

Thinking of all of you while we hike!