Finally I had a pretty decent sleep since arriving in the USA! I’d been really looking forward to that. I was up and about around 6am and heading down the trail at 7am. I felt pretty good and didn’t have any sore spots or limps to contend with.
The early track for the day was very pleasant and followed a creek along a grassy valley in the shade of some trees.
However the day slowly warmed up to around 30C which was fine, until the extended climbs were tackled whilst continually being in the direct sunlight. Much sweat was lost and my clothes started to get some serious salt stains on them.
I had lunch at 1pm and had s lie down under some of the few trees available at one of the dry campsites.
Most of the day was climbing towards the township of Mount Laguna In very low set vegetation, nearing the township though, it changed to a pine forest which was a very welcome change. I was undecided on pulling up short of Mount Laguna and camping the night or continuing into the Burnt Rancheria Campground. I ended up at the campground, but it seemed that we had missed the shop and cafe closing hours by a little bit.
I think I need around four days of food to get through to Warner Springs which means either I have to wait for the shop to open at 9am or hitch in and back out to Julian the following day at the road crossing. I’ll go through the food situation in the morning and make a decision from there.
I have a couple of blisters now where I always get them, deep in the skin pad directly behind the big toes, these ones don’t bother me at all. Unfortunately I have another small one on the side of my heel, I put a blister patch on it early and before if popped, but unfortunately the blister pad slid downwards in my sock and I ended up with a broken blister anyway. I’ll patch it up in the morning.
Nigel Christmas - Hiking Blog 