May 20, 2024 - Day 3

Woke up today to find out Devin’s, or Spoons’s as I’ll call him now, blow up mattress popped about an hour into the night last night. He’s had some rough sleep the past four days. He was able to patch it up this morning but he definitely had a rough night.

Set out on the trail a little later, around 7:30 this morning, and began a roughly 9 mile climb up to the top of Mount Laguna. So far it’s been my favorite section we’ve seen. The views were incredible the whole way with pleasant temperatures, a cool breeze, and shade from some conifers. We knocked out 10 miles by lunch and stopped by ‘Frenchies’ for some burgers and a beer. It was an awesome mountain cabin restaurant. Ran into Goblin, Socks, and Willy Wonka. Goblin and Socks are both from Colorado and plan on doing a section of the PCT and head back to CO after reaching LA. Also at Frenchies were Yirka, Fully Charged, and Self Made. Ran into Chloe again who had some shoe trouble so hitched up to Julian and got a return ride up. Met Tiber for the first time as well.

After filling up we stopped by a convenience store for some resupply food and headed onward. I started getting pretty sore around mile 14 so we slowed it down and decided to camp near a water spicket and get an early start tomorrow. Saw our first sunset and it did not disappoint. Cowboy camping for the first time this trip as it’s quite windy. Found a nice spot tucked between some bushes.

Desert floor in two days.

Happy Trails…