June 13

We continued the dirt road walk detour. Fortunately it wasn't super long and the walking an easy gradual downhill. At the bottom of the road and the end of the detour they were rebuilding a ranger station that had burned down in the fire. There was supposed to be water available but I didn't see it. Fortunately one of the construction workers yelled out asking if I'd gotten water and pointed out the spigot :) Flip Flop took advantage of the construction site's porta-potty.

While crossing a road to pick up the trail again we ran into a guy cycle touring who was biking a route that follows the PCT. Turns out he'd thru-hiked before (trail name was Hops) so we talked for a little bit about our trips.

The next climb was a bit long and laborious. Climbing in sand is a bit of work as the ground gives out under each step. Sure was a good bit of loose degrading trail along the hike of the ridge after that. The slope was steep and the soil loose so that the trail often gave way to the weight of your steps. There were some spots where there was barely a trail left at all. Pretty hot throughout that burn area.

During a break I was reading the guidebook and read that it was common to pick up ticks in the area I'd just hiked through. Looked down and sure enough there was a tick, crawling up my pant leg the exact same color as the pant!

Another amazing view. Akways love seeing cascading ridgelines in the distance and in this view I counted 14! So pretty.

Bunch of poison oak along a section of trail. Glad to know what it looks like so I can avoid it. There's also another plant out here that kinda looks like it which sometimes throws me off and makes me hesitate because there's so much of it overgrowing the trail. Thank goodness it isn't.

More beautiful views of mountains lit up by the light of the fading sun after dinner. Flip Flop and I decided to hike a bit into the night to avoid doing it in the heat of the day and set us up for a short day into Agua Dulce tomorrow. The nearly full moon was super bright and for most of hike a headlamp wasn't even necessary. My achilles began really aching (tendonitis maybe?) given the long day.

When we got to this road crossing we decided to just crash here at this rest stop picnic shelter on concrete. Gotta love a good sleeping pad :)

Heard a really weird noise which sounded closeby as we were setting up. Bear..?? Didn't think so but there were bear-proof garbage cans... So we stored our food bags in them lol. It actually sounded alot like that caged lion I'd passed by and heard before but who knows... Was weird too how it was somewhat regular.. Recording..?

Alot of noise from the road and trains but no match for a tired hiker and ear plugs :) 11pm and soon to be fast asleep no doubt!

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Location:Picnic rest stop area