I decided to spend a day at Mt Laguna to rest and I’m really glad that I did. My headache was gone this morning and my legs and feet got a little rest.
I met up with Rocksie (spelled after Rocks because she’s a geologist, not spelled like Roxy apparently!), Kyle, Evan, Ole, Silver Lining and Lori for breakfast at the cafe which was fun, but then I watched them walk off toward the trail, a little bit sad I wasn’t going with them. Jenna also left this morning.
I lurked around the post office waiting for it to open at noon and I saw Eden, Pink Panther (the hiker formerly known as Sheila) and Ree again which was nice. I mailed some things home which weighed about 2.4 lbs total. This included some pants, a very heavy wool sports bra, a silicone snack bag thing, some extra snow baskets and tips for my hiking poles, my wide brimmed hat, and a large dry bag among some other tiny small things. I didn’t have a hat so I decided to buy one at Mt Laguna. They had a bunch of weird hats but there was one yellow hat with a hummingbird on it and I thought it was cute so I bought it. I love the color yellow – it may be my favorite color.
I did some laundry, and am staying in a tiny home cabin thing behind the cafe in a shared house with Pink Panther and Crossroads. It felt nice to do basically nothing today except mail my stuff home, do laundry and buy food.
I bought some food at the general store which was very expensive, but I got some tortillas, refried beans, beef, some mashed potatoes and some chicken rice. Lots of food. I’m not sure the refried beans were a good idea because they’re very heavy, but I’ll try to eat those first. One of my biggest mistakes from this week was that I didn’t have a real lunch – I just ate some granola bars once I was on the trail. Nope. I think it will be so hot (for me) I’ll need to take a siesta during the middle of the day so I’ll have time to cook a proper lunch. I thought it was hilarious on day 2 when the guy from Texas was like, “at least it’s very cold out”. It was 70 degrees. It was basically as hot as the depths of hell to me.
Pink Panther and I went to the cafe for dinner. Before we got to the cafe, she told me I had to go look at this tree. It had holes all over the bark and there were tons of acorns in the holes. Neither of us knew how that happened, but I’m glad she showed me the tree!
I had a large Caesar salad. I feel the need to eat lots of vegetables while I can! At dinner, I was spotted by my Instagram friend Shawn, who lives in Massachusetts. He rolled up with a sizable group that looked to be having a lot of fun together and already planning what they’re going to do in Julian together. Good for their trail family. It’s funny how some people just immediately find a trail family. Much easier if you’re an extrovert I suppose.
In the tiny home next to ours was a small child walking around with a giant lizard on his chest. Oh California. This is not relevant to anything else in this blog post but was just funny.
The next two days will be my biggest challenge on trail yet. There is an 11 mile stretch where no camping is allowed, concluded by a 14 mile stretch where there is no water. I’m going to attempt to get to Scissors Crossing in two days with a 14 mile day tomorrow past the no camping zone, and then a 20 mile day to get past the no water zone. The whole way to Julian is downhill to lower altitude, so besides the heat, it may be easier than some of the uphill climbs of the past few days.
I am worried about the heat though. I bought a different water filter and more water storage today. 2.4 pounds is basically one extra liter of water for the same weight pack. I’ll have my new hummingbird hat too. Sailors get tattoos of pigs and roosters on their feet as a superstition so they won’t sink. Hummingbirds are light, and so fast you can’t even see them flapping. I want to be like that – light and fast. My hiking spirit animal.
I’m glad I took a day to rest before all of this and I definitely plan on taking another rest day in Julian.
I’m starting to settle into hiker life, learning how to pack my bag, learning what works. I feel a lot less grumpy than I did the first day and I’m hoping I can find more camping spots away from the snorers. I’m hoping most of them have passed me by now.
I may have a trail name now, but I am not fully ready to commit to it just yet, that seems like a very big deal in this new world. More details on that soon though.
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