As dawn broke over the Salton Sea 6,000 feet below us and several miles to the east, Erin and I hastily moved all our gear from our bootleg campsite to a nearby picnic table to pretend that we had not just spent the night there.
Cramped quarters with gear and the resupply at the foot of the tent.
We packed up our resupply for the next 6 days until Warner Springs, then made our way into town for a much-needed visit to the bathroom. I went to outfitter Doug and purchased a new Therm-a-rest Z-lite shorty foam mattress, after realizing last night that my gossamer gear 1/8"-thick pad was not doing the trick. I proudly restrained from the $135 neo-air, knowing full well that I'd pop it within a week. We started hiking back to the trailhead when Lo, Magic Man appeared and shuttled us the rest of the way. The first two miles veritably flew by. The modification I made to my load leveling straps was making my load more bearable, but the pack still didn't fit right.
Load lifting straps sewn in place to correct slipping.
My pack was blowing out at the bottom seams along the back less than a week into the trip.
Erin and I stopped at an overlook north of Mt. Laguna.
After a quick lunch at a shaded roadside lookout, where we met briefly with Kit and MRshall, we left Mt. Laguna proper and began an exposed section through a fire scarred landscape that was just beginning to recover. The manzanita was low, the sun intense, and the girlfriend displeased. I leant her my headphones in an attempt to cheer her up and give her some motivation. It worked, thankfully. We rested some while at a picnic site and caught up with some of the regulars from the trail. Some loudmouth showed up, and we made haste to leave. We headed north into the beautiful Anza-Borrego desert, and made camp after a sinuous 4-mile stretch along the eastern flank of the Laguna range.
The campsite was in an ethereal granite boulder field that was catching the fading light of day when we pitched the tent. The rocky substrate would not accept stakes, so we were grateful that the TT DR had freestanding capabilities.i discovered that some repairs I made on my pack just before leaving weren't holding, so I decided that a new pack at kick-off was in the cards. More repairs might extend its life by a month or so, but with this rugged use and it's rapidly deteriorating condition (not to mention the shitty fit), a new bag is necessary. A pork fu-Chinese black fungus stroganoff dinner atop a boulder put a wrap on the day. I was grateful to finally be camping as a backpacker should, without roads, picnic tables, barbecues or faucets at the ready (though digging a 6" deep cathole may prove to be difficult). Erin said that this campsite validated all the misery of the day.
Coolest critters of the day: the Phyrnosoma observed along the hike and the rock wren (1st sighting ever) at camp, flitting from boulder to boulder calling and dancing away.
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