Day 21, 10.06 miles

Another awesome day down in the books! Since my shin was hurting yesterday, and I was in such a beautiful area, I decided after all to hang out at the hot springs instead of getting an early start. I woke up at 5:30 naturally, but was actually able to go back to sleep! Sleeping in on great! I’m not sure how long I actually slept but I know that I didnt get out of my tent until 8:30am! That’s like hiker’s noon!

Some bummer news: I packed everything up and decided to go about a hundred yards away to get some water from Deep Creek and have some cereal for breakfast. I was in my flip flops and didn’t want to lug my bag over and back. I thought I had put all of my food in my food bag.

I was wrong... 

I had preemptively packed my snacks for today into my left hip belt pocket last night, and when I came back from my breakfast there were like 6 squirrels trying to get in! Well, as you can see from the photo above they succeeded.. Worst of all, they got my macadamia nuts!! 

Little buggers

I was pretty bummed as that’s a brand new $230 backpack, and also bummed because Claire got me those macadamia nuts and they were so good!! (Dad sent me some earlier but I nommed all of those before Big Bear :) Anyway, a little luekotape fixed it for now. I’m definitely not leaving my bag unattended again!

I went over to the river and hit spring area around 10:30am, where some hikers that had gotten an early start a few miles away were already arriving! There’s a nice shaded area where the hikertrash roam..

Good ol’ hikertrash!!

It was so great to swim in the cold river, practice some slack lining, soak in the hot springs, and relax under the shade. I massaged my calves and shins and alternated from hot and cold like Claire told me and I think it really helped the pain in my right leg. Also, I saw Shadow!! He had caught up to me since I was takin a half day off relaxing. When we get to Wrightwood, Julian will probably still be there (he left early this morning), and it will be a reunion!

I rested and stretched and ate, but as always, I was getting antsy from being in one place for too long, and decided to leave at 2pm to get some miles under my rested feet! I somehow missed a blister that has recurred about 5 times.. I don’t like to pop blisters mid-day when I plan to walk on it, but this bad boy had to go. I stopped at the first shaded area and removed it from my foot :) Too much info, right?

Anyway, the trail followed along way above Deep Creek for about 5 miles, and the the Mojave Dam came into view. The trail then dropped down and crossed the creek once more (where I got some more water), and then it started climbing in a beautiful but windy canyon wall traverse.

Beautiful flowers in a burn area

About 10 miles from the Hot Springs, I arrived at a water source and saw about 10 other hikers who had set up their tents in a small flat campsite area nearby. I filtered two liters of water for tomorrow and then picked out a nice spot. Unfortunately I accidentally put my groundsheet on top of a red ant hill!!! That wasn’t going to work..

A couple named Jim and Grace who I had met a couple miles back told me there was a little spur trail to a nice flat grassy area nearby. Sure enough, there was just enough flat to set up for some cowboy camping! I also met two other hikers here named Dana and Meg. The 6 of us had enough space to spread out and each have a nice view of the setting sun.

Cowboy camping

What a beautiful night!! 

Well, it’s been a great day of relaxing and a half day of hiking. My feet are feeling great (after that blister), although my right shin/ankle is still giving me a little trouble. Hopefully another full night of rest will have things feeling better in the morning! Well, it’s 8:20pm, last my bedtime!

Thanks for reading!!