After a night of fitful sleep thanks to my recovering knee, i awoke to find a nice crust of frozen condensate lining the roof of the tent. I mentioned that we ought to keep the vestibule open to reduce condensation. Erin retorted that it was never a problem with her tent. The day started with Boo-boo's dad, magic man, delivering 2 carafes of coffee to our campsite. I gratefully drank 2 cups of the good stuff, then got to work breaking camp. Erin and I foolishly thought we would be showering in the morning, but our love of sleep got the better of us. After a prolonged packing session in a 15mph wind, we continued on the trail. An old timer named Hiker Bill, who smelled faintly of booze, regaled us of his 08 and 09 thru hikes, and told us that the water was plentiful today. Erin's feet didn't fare too well yesterday, so our pace out the gate was slow. Her feet did not improve overnight, and we were repairing more blisters at mile 3, overlooking Lake Morena.
Erin's foot doctoring.
Erin and I with Lake Morena in the background.
While we were stopped, our amigo Marshall hobbled up, his feet too in poor repair. At this point I'd seen quite a selection of woodrat houses in the scrub, and a common assortment of CA & spotted towhees, white crowned and black chinned sparrows, the occasional quail, and American goldfinch. Other birds, with songs unknown to me, provided me with a nonstop source of consternation. I swapped out my new Sole insoles for my old Superfeet for good measure, just to provide a little variety. We continued along Cottonwood Creek and saw some beautiful vernal meadows alive with yellow blennosoerma flowers. I rapidly discovered that the Superfeet insoles were hosed and were generating blisters. I swapped them out for the Sole's and immediately noticed the difference. I sprinted to tell Erin, who was nonplussed. After a nice long foot soak in Cottonwood Creek, we crossed under I-8 and began our climb into the Lagunas.
Erin passing under I-8.
It was a beautiful, well graded climb with a nice cool breeze and great vistas. I hiked in front on watch for snakes. We passed the 1% mark, and continued on.
Erin and I at the 1% mark.
Four miles and 800 vertical feet later, we saw Magic Man again! He chocked us full of Mountain Dew.
We met two young guys from San Diego who were hurting. We kept hiking, I saw a Swainsons hawk, and Erin found a king snake. The last couple miles into camp were really tough on Erin's feet, and when we got to the creek I could see why: several more blisters had popped up over the course of the day. I cooked a brisk dinner of mashed potatoes, Chinese black mushrooms and pork fu, we said our hellos and goodbyes to neighbors(SD boys, Marshall, Mario& Erin, other dude from east coast), and went to sleep.
Happy Irish lass with her potatoes at te end of a long day!
Too busy eating to bother smiling for the camera.
Erin kissed me goodnight and wished for new feet. The outfitter in Mt. Laguna could be a long, long 12 miles away if not.
Coolest critters: I identified a Swainson's hawk flying over us when we were ascending the southern escarpment of the Laguna Mountains, around mile 29. Shortly thereafter I was able to identify a common side-blotched lizard with my binoculars before it scurried away.
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