Day 9, 18.72 miles

Whew what a day!!i woke up on my sweet, private sandy beach to a much colder-than-expected morning! My sleeping bag was a little wet on top, perhaps from being so close to the stream? Nonetheless, I stuffed it in my bag to deal with it later, ate some more frosted mini wheats, and hit the road by 6:45. My fingers stay way colder than the rest of my body in the morning and evenings, so I made sure to throw on my Possimdown gloves. 

Matching!

The morning was sooooooo beautiful! I really enjoy getting a nice and early brisk start ahead of the sun. Soon it came in shining through, making for quite a picturesque beginning to my long day:

Up up and up I climbed, soon leaving the tree’d creek area behind and bursting out into exposed ridges. Today was my first day actually listening to music while hiking. I’ve been missing out! I mainly listened to Credence Clearwater Revival, and two of my favorite artists, Stick Figure and Alborosie. It’s crazy how quickly songs and entire albums go by when you’re walking for hours and not just driving to the grocery store. Pro-tip: Faster pace jam-bands are great for uphill, Reggae is good for flat and downhill :)

I started leap-frogging a group of three hikers and another group of two. I’ve seen them quite a bit and even talked to them but just today learned all 5 of their names. I don’t have a picture of Amy and Jaime but they’re really cool. The other three were coming around a bend as I was taking a panorama of a SWEET break-spot atop a boulder, check it out!

Love this picture! Sharp-shooter, Emily, and Walter in order of appearance. (The trail went right under my epic boulder.)

The boulder fields continued and there were cool formations to be seen left and right.

This one kinda made me nervous:

Splat potential for sure...

In the left of this picture is wild lilac. It’s so pretty and was growing EVERYWHERE today!

Love the blue 

Also, plenty of these guys

After 12 morning miles, just as the sun was starting to get hot, I saw the spur trail for Mike Herrera’s house. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mike has a house just off trail (nearest neighbors and 6 and 10 miles away). He works with a company that sells commercial kitchen equipment, so on his property he has three giant water tanks for hiker use as well as a sweet kitchen-type-garage-area where he often makes pancakes in the morning, hot dogs for lunch, and pizza and cake for dinner!! 

Today Mike wasn’t there, but when I rolled up (I was the first hiker to arrive), I saw a familiar face!

This is Josh (but now he has a trailname “Off-trail” He is the caretaker of the property while Mike is away and lives on site. He remembered my face from two years ago! When a few other hikers arrived, including the 5 that were close behind me, he started whipping up some grub. Last year Claire and I stopped by in the morning for some pancakes and lots of carrots. Today it was hot dogs all the way!

After lunch Off-trail asked for volunteers to help him load up some firewood to stoke the brick oven for tonight’s pizza. I volunteered along with a hiker named Julian. I had met Julian IN Julian, and he lives in Los Angeles. We hopped on the tailgate of the property truck, and enjoyed a speedy and bumpy ride to the old manzanita burn site. 

Julian after we loaded up the truck

 I didn’t take any actual pictures of the hiker hangout, as I was too busy eating, relaxing, catching up with everyone, eating, filtering water, and did I say eating?

While I was there I met a cool hiker couple who’s names are Poppy and Tree-man. Tree-man has some sweet dreads and Poppy is from Portland! I also met Ben and Shadow, and got to see Andre again for a brief second before I left. 

Ok here’s something crazy: so in 2016 I was at Mikes the morning of my birthday. Then Claire and I headed out probably around 10 or 11 am to get some more miles in. After the sunny, 80° climb out of the area where his home is, we got hit by a random hailstorm and then a long downpour of cold rain! Below are two pictures: the first was today and the second is the EXACT same spot, May 1st, 2016

Crazy huh?!? (That’s hail Claire’s standing on)

So, body update! My toes are in full recovery mode! All toe blisters have subsided with the introduction of injinji toe socks, and side of foot and ball of foot areas have stopped hurting now that I’m wearing Timps in size 13 with extra padding. I feel great! I do have small blisters under the calluses of each outside heel, but they are covered in leukotape and are bearable.

Having trekking poles from the start of this hike are really saving my knees, and I can feel my body becoming stronger. My pack is light, I have extra water because of it and am staying extra hydrated and sunscreened. I’m feeling GREAT!  I was able to pound out about 6 more miles after Mikes house, putting me at over 18 miles today WITH a 4 hour break! Woo!

I have service at my campsite tonight and have been researching the new alternate to the San Jacinto mountain fire closure form the fire in 13’. I have a sweet plan which I’ll detail tomorow. It’s 9:20, past my bed time!

Thanks for reading!