Yesterday's easy 21 miles had us grinning and dreaming of thru hikes. We hoped to make 22 miles today. Haha! 10 steps into our hike this morning we knew what a difference a day could make.
The trail climbs steeply from 3400 to about 8000 feet in 8 tough miles. I especially struggled and had to use my granny gear. It took us 5 hours to go those first 8 miles while the day before we went 16 miles in 5 hours. Granted the climb wasn't as sustained the day before, but it did go up and down a lot and overall gained about 2000 feet a few times. I am not sure what my problem was.
After a 3 hour break at the water source today and after eating a lot of food the next 10 miles went better. Of course there wasn't any sustained climbs and the temperature was cool at the much higher elevations. Mount San Gorgonia was to the west of us and it stood proudly covered in a saintly robe of snow. It made me think of a mythical mountain where a trove of karate masters train or a secret lair of dragons. The desert does strange things to your eyes and brain.
It's cold here. I'm wearing almost all my clothes and we zipped our sleeping bags together tonight. It feels like it will be below freezing soon. Funny thing is I wanted to send my cold weather gear home the day we sat in the triple digits in Ziggy and Bear's backyard. Fortunately Uncle Bob has better sense than I. Good ole Uncle Bob, he takes care of everybody. Especially me.
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