got a ride back to the trailhead at 7:30 and back on trail by 8am. Wish I'd started 2 hours earlier. Damn was it a hot one. Very few places to break out of the sun. Went 13 miles until the first water resupply and was down to my last liter for the 2 hours leading in and it was hot and not refreshing. Great water cache with cool water. Did a several hour siesta with rachel and Forrest. I met rachael briefly in mt laguna and just met Forrest today. We all seemed to really click and rachael has invited us to zero with her In 3 days. A plan is hatched for us to all meet at paradise cafe on sunday or Monday. Forrest and I are shooting for Sunday so we can zero instead of nero in town. After our siesta Rachael and I move on to another 3 miles away and forrest stays back. We find a campsite with about 6 others and I'm stoked as I've camped on my own the last 2 nights. Forrest it seems had fomo and shows up before sunset. We all hangout for a few hours before bed. Mistakes realized; that I need to only bring sealed chocolate in the desert and hike more in the mornings and evenings.

I have to make it to Warner springs by 4pm to pick up my package. I get up at 5am and am out of camp by 6am. Morning hiking is glorious just barely any sunlight, but enough and cool still. By 7:30am its already hot. I only take 1 five minute break and a short stop at eagle rock for a pic. Plus a quick pic to commemorate 100 miles. Made it to the road to hitch. Its 1 mile but it looks hot. Theres about 8 people trying to hitch with no luck when I arrive. They finaly give up and I'm left alone. Forrest shows up and after 10 minutes I'm worried we might not get one. Some day hikers are headed back to their car and say they are going the other way. I sweet talk them into giving us a ride anyways and we skip the extra mile road walk. My package is there, but apparently just barely as it was sent to the wrong place. I lucked out. The only other thing open in this small area is a gas station. About 15 of us get snacks and cold beverages and hole up for a few hours to siesta. Forrest and I make a plan to just go 3 more miles and camp and leave super early in the morning. We'll have 2 really long days to do to make our goal on sunday. The hitch back is even harder we almost give up when someone pulls over and gives us a ride. We camp by a stream with sabrina who's dad just got off trail 2 days ago. Good night with fun stories.

I started my day at 4am, hiking by 4:30. Forrest and I decided to both get an early start. As we're both packing up he asks if I heard the mountain lion last night and I immediately remembered being woken up by the terrifying sound. I think my brain told me not to worry as it was a coyote (it wasn't). We decide to hike together this morning while the sun is still down and continue together til Mike's place where we siesta. I saw my 1st 2nd and 3rd snakes today, no rattlers thank goodness. Mike's place is a watering hole that most folks stop at as it's the last good water for 18 miles. Everyone but forrest and I leave and then real name forrest arrives and I get a kick out of it being 2 Forrest's and a Jenny. Forrest has decided not to push on to meet Rachel as planned as his knee is a concern. I push on to mile 134.8 and make it a 22 mile day. I'm exhausted. Just 18 in to paradise valley. If I get there by 2:30 itll be in time for a burger. Then hopefully a much needed zero.

Started my day slightly later than yesterday at 4:20, hiking by 4:45. I Got the early start with burger on my mind and had 10 miles in by 9:30am. I stopped for water at Mary's. A trail Angel's property that has water and a lending library and fresh fruit. The morning was foggy so I moved on pretty quickly to avoid the cold. I made the last 8 miles by about noon. I Lucked out at the trailhead and someone offered me a ride the mile to paradise valley cafe. I hate those extra miles. I ordered a bacon burger and fries. The fries were great, burger was good, but did not live up to the hype of best trail burger. I made it in time to get a ride with Rachel and her brother to his cabin in idyllwild. It was great. Got a shower, laundry, we went for ice cream and mexican. Ended the night with a movie nomadland. Great day and I'm psyched for a zero tonorrow.

Started my day slightly later than yesterday at 4:20, hiking by 4:45. I Got the early start with burger on my mind and had 10 miles in by 9:30am. I stopped for water at Mary's. A trail Angel's property that has water and a lending library and fresh fruit. The morning was foggy so I moved on pretty quickly to avoid the cold. I made the last 8 miles by about noon. I Lucked out at the trailhead and someone offered me a ride the mile to paradise valley cafe. I hate those extra miles. I ordered a bacon burger and fries. The fries were great, burger was good, but did not live up to the hype of best trail burger. I made it in time to get a ride with Rachel and her brother to his cabin in idyllwild. It was great. Got a shower, laundry, we went for ice cream and mexican. Ended the night with a movie nomadland. Great day and I'm psyched for a zero tonorrow.

Slept in til 7, got a text from forrest and he has made it in to paradise valley. Rachel and I go to pick him up and have a second meal at the cafe. Breakfast wasnt as good as the burger. Back to town, picked up my bounce box, sorted through our gear, made a grocery list. Then we Went to town for errands, post office again, outfitter, grocery store. Had pizza and salad for dinner. Where did the day go? Back to trail tomorrow.

We hit the trail by 7 am. Today will be a shorter day 14 or 15 miles. We get to the water source by10am and need to fill up for the night as we'll have to dry camp. The .2 miles the app says we had to go was more like .3 or .4 and very steep downhill. My knees hurt. The trip up was just as bad. Haven't had a climb that tough yet. My legs are on fire. The last 7 miles are mostly up hill with a slight downhill. Beautiful day of not all dessert terrain as we've reached 7000 feet. My knees are not happy

I woke at about 6am. Today was another tough day. The terrain reminded me more of the AT with steep inclines. We did 4200 in elevation gain. Today we came across 2 things of note. First, a rock slide that requires holding a rope to cross. We thought ahead and crossed as a group for safety. Today was also the spot we crossed where the hiker " microsoft" died last year. He went through under worse conditions with snow, but I couldn't help but think about him all day. Idlywild is a weird spot where you have to come in through a side trail down 2.5 miles to get in (unless you hitch in the 30 minutes from paradise valley). If I didn't have a heavy food carry I wouldnt have gone in this way. Going back up is going to suck. We Came back to Rachel's brother's cabin for another night in a bed and shower and laundry. We went to the pub and met up with some new hikers we got to know.

2 weeks on trail and I do not have my trail legs yet. We get a ride to the trailhead from local trail angel grumpy and avoid 1.5 walk up hill. My bag is the heaviest it's been with 5 days of food and the 2.5 straiget up hill incline sucks. I am moving at a snail's pace. My calves are really tight from the inclines yesterday. Once I hit the trail it's still slow moving. More tough miles. After the up and down miles we begin this massive descent that's abour 20 miles downhill. Most of that is with no water source so pack is heavier with 4.5 liters of water. I am slow moving with all this weight. Worse part of my day is when I roll my ankle. This was a bad one. I roll my ankles alot , but this one hurt more than normal and took longer to walk off. About 3 miles before my expected camp I come across a major campsite with trail magic. I had an orange soda, an orange, and a hot dog. Probably should have eaten out of my food bag, oh well. Also forrest and boujey (Rachel) already had their tents set up. I was psyched for the earlier stop. My ankle still hurts. Hoping it's better in the morning. Caught up with some other hikers too. Shit kicker, crusher, herb, and Katie.

Woke up at 5:15, out by about 5:45am. Not the earliest out but out before most. My ankle is feeling great. The first 5 miles are nice. Gentle downhill with the sun still low. It gets a lot worse from here. The next 10 miles to the water are all exposed with the sun beams down. It's switchback after switchback. I take 1 break at about mile 7 for a snack. About 2 miles later the urge to poop comes on. There is no where to go without being seen. I hold it for the next 5 miles and I thought that would be the worst part of the day. I make it to the water at about 1pm for lunch. Almost no shade. Spend about 45 minutes there breaking and filling up. Its 4 miles of flat dessert to the overpass we're all headed to for our siesta. Easy right? The first mile is road walking wind barreling down. Then it's a very sandy unnecessarily windy trail. Its flat, why are they making this section longer than it needs to be. The worst is the last mile when I turn in to the wind. So I'm walking in very soft sand with 20-30 mph winds in the heat of the day for a mile+. Still not my worst day, but a close second. The overpass is called the oasis and it truly is. Theres fruit left by a trail angel, a hiker box where I pick up some tp and refill my hand sanitizer, and most importantly shade. We're a group of about 10 and while there 3 sets if trail angels arrive and deliver sodas, more fruit, and snacks. Also forrest gets picked up by his cousin and brings boujey and I sodas of our choosing. After 2ish hours we move on as we cant stay there. We camp 2 miles down. The wind is so bad it's nearly impossible to stake down my tent. Most others are cowboy camping. I use the biggest rocks around and make it work. Hoping the wind doesn't keep me up. 22 miles. Passed 200 today.

Today started earlier than expected. After a night of wind constantly pummeling my tent at various wind speeds I finally gave up on sleeping at 2:30, by 3am I was hiking. The sun starts to come up at 5am so I had 2 hours of night hiking. This would be fine if the trail was as well marked as the AT. It's not. I took at least 3 wrong turns. If it weren't for the guthooks app showing my position as it relates to the trail I might have gotten lost. The miles were slow in the dark. I made it the 7 miles to the whitewater preserve by 7:30am. The trail magic we were told might be there isnt. I'm psyched to use a running toilet and wash with running water. Then I take a 2 hour nap. Other hikers arrive and I'm social then take another 1 hour nap. Finally boujey and I move on to a swimming hole. Hang there for several hours to avoid the heat and getting in the water helps with that. We move on at about 4pm and go another 6 miles to the next water. Somewhere in there I start to feel nauseous. Might be heat exhaustion and have something to do with the lack of sleep. Early to bed and some electrolytes for dessert.

Mothers day. Today was a long day. Started at about 3000 ft and ended at 8700 ft. 22 miles. As I've noticed before this trail is not well marked. Today was a particularly bad day. Everyone I hiked around got turned around at some point. Boujey and I got lost at least 6 times. Definitely slowed me down. I Didnt break enough today. Luckily water was plentiful most of the day. We ended in the middle of an 18 mile dry spot so had to carry 4 liters out the last 8 miles. Long day. Got in around 8pm. Quickly set everything up, Ate and ready for bed. It's really cold, probably high 30s. Wish I hadn't left my down booties at boujey's brothers cabin. Havent had service for days, So weird. Texted happy mother's day through my garmin.

18 miles by 12:30. Not much happened except that I woke up at 5am and only took a 5 minute pee break until I stopped. Passed the zoo today, but fellow thru hiker James passed me minutes before and advised me that all the animals had been put down due to covid fears. I was disgusted. Sure enough no animals. Pushing that hard in to town was rough and I was sore but happy I did it. Had lunch with boujey and tiger blood at a brewery. Not a bad burger. I decided to be frugal and stay at the hostel while boujey went to a hotel. It was a typical hostel, though had more non hikers than I'm used to. The only thing open was a bunk room space or camping. I chose the bunk room. Decided to hold off on resupplying until tomorrow. The rest of the day was spent reading a book and socializing with some new hikers. Got to know Hima and tiger blood and met a triple crowner named Delayed. Stayed up past my bedtime to 10:30. Good day. Also though the hot tub was tempting I didnt trust a hostel to properly clean the hiker funk.

Great nights sleep in the hostel. I was shocked there were no snorers. I had a leisurely morning, but realized I lost my sunglasses somewhere in town. Searched the whole hostel with no luck. The restaurant I went to yesterday was closed. So I left town without them. Told my story to a trail angel giving rides and he had a spare pair, so that was lucky. I got dropped off at the grocery and picked up some food to resupply. I bought way too much. I'm carrying it anyways since I'm too cheap to give extra away. Lol. Met up with boujey and we called another trail angel for a ride to the trail. We made it the planned 2 miles. Crusher, herb, and shit kicker showed up and we convinced them to stay. Had some deep political conversations. Good evening.

Seems the 3 newcomers whose names were so odd I can't remember were playing a movie last night past hiker midnight without headphones. Super annoying. I slept in until about 7am since it was so Cold and no one else was moving, pus only have 17 miles to go. Should be a nice day. The miles were pretty nice. Terrain was fairly easy. All and all a nice day. Showed up to the planned site and boujey wasn't there. I assume I passed her without realizing it and go another .3 miles to the water. Seems the others havent seen her either. I go ahead and set up my tent. After a few more arrivals at camp it's clear boujey must have moved on. I'm sure we'll meet up at the next town. Unfortunately the 3 from last night showed up again and as I write this they are again making noice past hiker midnight. Need to make sure to avoid them tomorrow.