Days 2-4

Day 2:
Woke up not hungry at all. Not a good sign, but not the worst, either. The original plan was to make it to Cibbets Flat Campground (15-ish miles) by end of day. Yeah, that didn't happen, for a couple reasons. First off, I was still recovering from the 15 mile push plus another 4-5 miles looking for water with low water on day one. Second, once I got hiking, I realized my ankle was bugging me.

Pippin was already up and gone by the time I got moving, so I hiked solo. I had just enough water to make it the 5 miles to Lake Morena Campground, but there was guaranteed water there, so I wasn't too worried. It was a bit of slow going with my ankle, and I knew it wasn't going to be a good idea to push on past there that day, so I took a Near-0 to rest and RICE my ankle.

While there, I met back up with Roy and Katie (she is the one who made the awesome patch). They started with me at S&F's, but were doing 10s to start. They are fun people, so when they asked if I wanted to join them for day 3, I said yes for the company and to take it easy on my ankle.

There was a campground worker who lived on site in his trailer. He came around to take our fee for spending the night there with his dog, Larry. Larry was cute, and I got a little dog fix, as I was missing both Lucky and Chinook (my parents' dog).

Forced myself to eat a burger and malt from the malt shop just off the campground, but it took a few hours to get through it. At this point I was a bit worried about this no appetite thing, but I figured I would get myself rested and fully re-hydrated before I raised a true alarm about it.

There were a couple guys doing Trail Magic at the campground. They came by the PCT hiker spot and offered rides to their campsite where they were doing Chili dogs and S'mores. Since I had no appetite, I turned it down, but they also said they were going to be at Kitchen Creek Crossing doing Magic the next day.

Also, there was a shower on site. $.50 for 4 minutes of hot water. It was wonderful. I also rinsed out my dirty clothes and hung them dry.

Day 3:
Woke up at 4 am to hike with Roy and Katie. They like hiking in the dark. It's not for me, as I prefer to be able to see more than just what my headlamp illuminates, but the companionship was good.

My ankle was feeling better that morning, so that was good. Roy and Katie like to knock out all their miles before the heat of the day and rest for the afternoon, so they weren't going super slow, but weren't really pushing it, either. Water was still scarce, but the guys doing Magic were going to provide water, so we weren't too worried.

At one point, Katie called a break. I knew we had to be close to where the magic was happening, so before I dropped pack, I checked the Halfmile App to see how far it was. We were .08 miles away. I asked if they were sure about the break because of that, but Roy had already plopped down, too.

I hiked on for about 3 minutes before coming upon the site of the Magic. The guys had water, sandwiches, pop, gatorade, apples, and chips. Heaven. I dropped my bag, told the people there (2 Angels and about 5 hikers) about Roy and Katie, grabbed an apple and Gatorade, and said "I am going to walk back and taunt them." Which I did, and it got them up off their butts right quick.

We chilled there for a while, enjoying the company and the food. I was even able to steal some ice from the hosts for my ankle and elevate it. Eventually, though, all good things must end, and we moved on.

We made it to Cibbets Flat Campground that night, a day behind my original schedule. Ran into a little more magic there: more apples and some more ice. My ankle was grateful for latter.

It was really windy that night. REALLY windy. A few people's tents had to be moved around so they wouldn't blow down. Made it hard to sleep. The wind also blew a bunch of dust into my tent, even with the door zipped and the rain fly on.

My appetite was back, so I actually made dinner and ate most of it. I took that as a good sign.

Day 4:
Katie and Roy woke up at 4 again, but I wanted to sleep in, so they left without me. I hiked most of the day by myself.

It was a great day for hiking. I was in the shadow of a hill most of the day, so the sun wasn't beating directly on me. My ankle didn't hurt at all, and the trail was fairly smooth and level after the first bit, so I made good time

Made it to the Long Creek forge, and there were Katie and Roy! I had caught up to them. Also there were Simba, Lauren, and DaviAnna. Simba got his trail name on the AT. Not sure why. I should ask.

Simba and Lauren had to make it to Mt. Laguna before the post office closed, so they booked it. DaviAnna, Roy, Katie and I hiked pretty much together the 4-ish miles to Laguna, arriving there about 11am.

We had lunch at the little cafe there, and went to the store to pick up a couple things. Then we set up camp at Burnt Rancheria.

The weather started being a little weird, with the wind coming up again, but changing direction a lot. It also blew a bunch of clouds (we are at almost 6000 feet elevation) through our campground. Windy and damp.

This campground also has a shower. I am not quite ready to be dirty hiker-trash, yet, so I used it. I wanted to rinse out my dirty, dusty clothes, too, but with the misty air, I figured they wouldn't dry very well.

The wind is still blowing heavily, so we will see how well I sleep tonight.