Day 1. 20 miles.
Three vehicles set out at 6am to shuttle all the hikers and their packs from Scout and Frodo's to the southern terminus to begin the journey. A photographer has been posted there all season taking Day 1 portraits of everyone and planned to take final day portraits of the hikers at the northern terminus to show what 2650 miles of hiking does to your face. Pretty cool project! We signed in with the PCTA and posed for our start pictures at the posts then Space Jam came out and climbed to the top for a solo photo.
We hit a quick stride hoping to get some miles in the bank before taking a siesta to wait out the afternoon heat. We hiked with a few different mini-bubbles from S&F's and around 10am we decided it was now hot enough to test out the shade umbrellas...holy cow do they make a difference!!! I am so glad that I found one in a hiker box in Maine after finishing the AT. We crossed some railroad tracks, watched some ranchers heard cattle down in a valley, and saw some fire planes circle around a nearby pillar of smoke. It was great to be back on trail; surrounded by nature, fresh air, beautiful sights, interesting wildlife, etc.
Ranchers rounding up some cattle.
CAL FIRE on patrol.
We took siesta down in Hauser Creek which was running dry but had plenty of shade. I journaled and then continued to read my thick bio of Teddy Roosevelt which I hoped to finish before the first library so I could swap it out for a lighter book to read. The climb out of the canyon was pretty grueling since the afternoon sun pounded down directly on us and we thought that by 4pm it would've cooled down a bit more. We were wrong. We finally made it to Moreno Lake campground where we found warm beers in the hiker box, rendezvoused with Boundaries and Lizzy, and met some new faces; Sasquatch, Dave, and Nate.
Day 2. 14 miles.
We planned to get up at 5am and hit the trail super early but it was freezing out so we stayed huddled in the tent for a bit until the sun peeked out. The trail was super flat for a few miles as it wound through some pretty trees, flowers and cacti so the miles flew by until we dipped down into a valley flush with trees.
Manzanita Tree.
Bumble Bee getting at a Prickly Pear Cactus.
We took a quick break and then continued on to the water hole at Kitchen Creek where we were the second group to arrive. I set my hammock tarp up in "ground" mode to provide shade and we then relaxed for the next four hours as hikers kept trickling in for siesta. The tarp is not totally opaque so sun could still get through and bake the occupants underneath so everyone instead used their sun umbrellas and sat in the pool.
The plan was to go seven miles afterwards to hit Long Canyon Creek but my foot started hurting and the sun started setting so we set camp at mile 34 along a ridge and I tried out my new lens for some astrophotography!