Updated to fix formatting that seems to have been lost when posting from my mobile!
Okay three days done and quite eventful already.
Day one
Bob Reiss put three of us up for the night and provided transport to the border for us. Only problem was waking up at five AM to be on the road for 5:30 as we wanted to make the border for as close to sunrise as we could.
At the border for 7AM and hiking by about 7:30.
The first few miles were relatively easy and I was feeling very comfortable but the the heat of the day started to make its presence know and my speed started to drop off severely, but a bit of rest in the shade and I was ready to go again.
Things took a turn in the afternoon, we encountered another hiker sitting at the side of the trail, at first he asked us did we have any spare water as he was low, we had a little bit so shared but on further talking to him we found out he had twisted his ankle and was waiting for some members of his family to come up and help him down, well at this point my first aid kicked in, after bandaging his ankle we decide to help him back to the nearest access "road", I decided to stay with him but Nico who I had been hiking with for some of the day decided to push on with the rest of his group after helping me with Tims pack.
After we had been back at the Jeep road for a while it was clear that Tim's family would not be able to get to where we were easily so they contacted border patrol, as there was evidence that they patrolled that road regurarly, anyway one person Tim talked to insisted that 911had to be called so they could confirm our position, this resulted in a chopper being scrambled (I won't mention what the border agents that did come for us said about this, other than to say that he said he knew where we were from the description). Eventually we were picked up about 9:30, my plan had been to get some water from them and hike the five miles into the next water source but based on the limited water and the time of day it was decided that it would be a lot safer for them to drop me at the next campsite, so I did end up skipping a small section of the trail but it was for a good cause.
Day two
The second day started slowly, I had stayed overnight in lake morena, I had originally considered taking a zero day but decided against that, this meant I was late leaving and did not hit the trail till almost eleven which is probably the worst time, anyway I slogged on for a few hours before hitting a wall, the first really good shade I found was under a highway bridge so I lay down for a good hour.
I was still about 4 miles from the next decent camp spot that also had water, but the rest had done me good so I managed to get to camp just as it was getting dark.
Day three
Awake at sunrise, the first few hours were very nice with me managing a comfortable 2mi/hour pace but as with other days once the sun got hot this dropped way down, I was flagging again by about 10 but I pushed on till about 1 when I found a really nicely shaded spot and took a long nap, got back on the trail a little before 4 and easily made the 3 miles to my planned camp site, unfortunately there was not the expected water so I needed to move on, well 4 mile furthur on was the town of MT Laguna which I knew had a motel/lodge, all I can say is it is amazing how much motivation a comfortable bed can be (along with the cool weather in the evening) well the final hour or so of hiking was by torch which was actually very nice to be out of they heat of the day.
I arrived to the lodge just as the owner was pulling away and thankfully there was a room available. Day four (five?) This is a day of rest, I plan on doing very little except resting. I have a package to pick up at the post office this afternoon and some planning to do.
Obviously I have gotten a connection to update the blog, afraid not many photos to upload but I will include this one of the store in town. It is what I always pictured a remote store to be, it basically has everything somewhere in it, the post office is attached, the motel/cabins are behind it and owned by the same people, the town has a population of 60 and during the week the store is almost the only thing in town, there is a cafe at the weekends.
The town is at 6000 feet so it is officially the highest I have hiked :) Oh also encounter my first snow this evening, there are still a few patches hers in the shade.
General info So that covers the basics of what I have been up to. I suppose the question is how have I been doing, well the hiking has been hard and at this stage I feel physically wrecked, hence taking a double zero, but I think I have the pattern I need to follow for the next days, I need to be hiking either before or right at sunrise so I can get a few hours in before it warms up properly them I need to take a long rest/nap around midday to avoid the worst of the temperatures and then hike up till or after dark, this may take some adjusting but I will try it for the next section.
Other than that the temperature/exercise is playing havock with my appetite, I am not eating enough, I estimate 2000 calories yesterday which is not enough to sustain me at this level of activity but hopefully this is something my body can sort out in the next few days or I will have to review it again at the next town stop.
