4-26

While walking down to camp yesterday the wind never relented. All of the campsites were totally exposed to the screaming gusts. so we pushed the final 5 miles to a road where we were immediately spotted by a car that we had seen before. When we camped after mt Laguna the husband/wife duo that we shared a campsite with was in the car and gave us all a ride into Julian. We got one of the last rooms at the Julian lodge and it was HUGE!! Advertised as being able to sleep 4, we could easily have put 20 hikers in there no worries. Everyone threw laundry into a pile and got that squared away first. As people were showering I did was I could to wipe off the massive amounts of dust that had accumulated after the wind storm the night before. Lots of hanging out, took pictures of people's blisters, had a few drinks before turning in for bed. 

Woke up early as I'm getting used to trying to hike most of my miles in the cool morning hours. Played on my phone and talked to Ashlee for a good part of the morning. Looks like we're going to be getting a visit soon! 

Showered again, because I could, and then organized food & gear. I'm. Carrying a LOT of food. Too much. Coupled with all the water we have to  carry, it gets heavy. 

Took a while to get a ride back to the trail but eventually made it and started walking around 3:20. Today led me through some Beautiful trails winding up the side of very rocky maintains full of cacti. It's almost starting to feel like the desert now. Passed a handful of people on my way up, and with the wind keeping me cool, I barely took any breaks. Made it just shy of 9 miles before finding a killer campsite with 9 other hikers on top of a hill somewhat protected from the winds by other mountains. I'm facing east so if I don't wake up to my alarm, I'll get a great sunrise in bed. 

It's a little windy still, and fairly cold. But I'm cowboy camping anyway. The stars are so nice, it's hard to turn down the view. 

I carried 4 liters of water out of town. Drank some and made dinner so I'm left with 2 and change. There's a water cache in 5 miles, and then a real water source 10 miles later. I'm going to do at least 15 tomorrow to hopefully get me into Warner springs the next morning.