30 — Angeles NF

Miles 411.8 — 430.4 Angeles National Forest (18.6 miles)

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Rose: hitting my stride on the last hill of the day Thorn: wind in the morning/the night Bud: town-ish

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What a terrible windy night. The wind did not abate with the sunset. I had set up my tent for some privacy. I had only staked it for moderate wind. At about two AM, about the time I needed to reinflate my mattress anyways, a big gust pulled out a stake at the foot of the tent and collapsed the bottom of the tent on tom of me. I crawled out, righted the tent, reenforced the guy lines with rock weights, and secured flapping bits with more stakes. The wind was coming up on all sides of the ridge, so there was no proper orientation to strengthen the tent to the wind. I put in earplugs to keep out the flapping of the tent as I slept. Everything felt gritty from the dirt flung around by the wind.

My alarm went off at 4:45 am. I wanted an early out to make better progress for my tramily. I hit snooze, a pre-dawn gust promptly collapsed the tent once more. The wind, at least, had the decency to completely fling the tent off of me so it may to my side. That made packing quick, well… except for the tent stakes. Those took a few extra minutes to find in the pre dawn light, having been flung far from their origins.

Needless to say, I packed up quick and left camp before many others had risen.

The wind followed me along the ridge until about 7 am. At this point, I stopped to take in all the bird sounds. I love how active the birds twitter in the early morning and late twilight. I can mimic the simple calls but no trills.

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Water was only seven miles, a spigot and pit toilet next to an empty, new USFS fire station. I spent a couple hours there with my group when they caught up, drinking water (“cameling up”), and charging our phones.

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The day was already hot by 10 am. The first climb (only about 800’) was exposed to the sun. My group stopped by 11:30 for a short siesta with lots of shade. After a week in the mountains, we have to relearn the heat of the desert.

At 1:30, we trickled out one by one. I ended up hiking with Ziggy from another tramily. Ziggy is recently retired Navy. Talking with someone made the day go quicker. After an hour, I outpaced him. Then I broke for a night 45 minute sojourn. At 4:45, I plowed up hill at a fast clip (woo hoo!), fueled by NPR’s Code Switch podcast.

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Picture this:

We’re all sitting around on our polycro camp islands chatting about the day and doing nighttime chores. Pebbles stands up to go to her plastic island. A gust of wind hoists up my inflatable pillow and sends it idly tumbling away. Pebbles says she’ll go get it for me, but she is suddenly paralyzed by the agony of a foot gone asleep. After a few more tumbles of my pillow, I hastily throw down my chore, scramble for my shoes, and lope with tender feet and a hobbling gait to retrieve my pillow.

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Our campsite is a minimal backcountry USFS campground, but at least there’s pit toilets.

The wind is up again though. That and early mornings have driven us all to bed before the sun’s even set. I’m trying cowboying again. Fingers crossed.