Mission creek camp spot to arrastre trail campground - 20.7 miles

Total - 256.2 miles

I’m currently beating my pickup time and getting out of the tent and on trail by 5:50am. Very proud BUT the morning was ass as I have no energy and I felt slow. Which couldn’t be true whatsoever as we were passing people all morning but that’s just how I felt. We also started on an uphill which didn’t give me much time to warm up my body and we were thrown into the deep end. Total we climbed around 4500 feet. Most of it felt awful. We finally exited mission creek which means the only part of trail in the desert that I was worried about was over. Truly a brutal section and would not do again for mental health and physical reasons. Once we got out of that section I was feeling good mainly because my body had warmed up and most importantly it flattened out at a lower grade. THANK FUCKING GOD!! I started to feel like myself again so we breezed into lunch (me and the Germans) and sat with a group of new hikers. I really need a new female friend out here but now everyone is kinda paired off into tramilies so it’s kinda hard to adopt women at the moment. I also am starting to hate the question “when did you start?” As it kinda implies a competition and people are trying to gage where they are at in the bubble. We are 250 miles in who gives a fuck. Plus once we answer the 12th everyone says woah you guys are cruising in a backhanded compliment type of way it feels like. It’s almost saying you gotta slow down but I feel like we are doing it great as of right now. Plus we nailed the weather window as a day after we finished San Jacinto it snowed and rained on top of the mountain and people have been kept up in idyllwild for awhile to wait out the storm. Plus in wrightwood they also had snow. Everything is going smoothly for us. We are kinda pushing our bodies though as I have complained on here a lot about my minor injuries or aches and pains. My hip felt better today and I do this it’s the belt of my pack causing me to scrunch my spine compressing my hip bone. My feet are starting to feel pretty strong and resilient. My bowels are now the issue as I can’t stop pooping. I poop and then walk five feet and need to poop again. I think it’s the diet change plus not hydrating as properly as I should. I’ve also given up on hygiene as my hands have not been clean since the first day, 17 days ago. As hard as I scrub the tiny crevasse cannot be cleaned. I’ve also succumbed to something similar to a ramen bomb that everyone tries on trail. Normally it’s ramen, instant mash potatoes, and the pouch meat of your choice. I did the vegetarian chili packets (organic and healthy), instant mash potatoes, and pouch meat (plain tuna). Actually so good and like 600-700 calories. The best part about the night before town day as well is you get to grub on all your food. Lighter pack tomorrow to carry into town. Super excited to clean myself (to the best of my ability) and just relax and try to heal. Might take the next section a lil slower but knowing me I won’t. We also start heading west instead of north lol. More northwest emphasis on the west for this next section after big bear which follow the mountain range. We are on section C as well in california and I believe it goes to L. So progress basically. I got big plans in big bear for resupply as it’s time to do snacks on snacks as I am HUNGRY. Never in my life would I be trying to make 3500+ calories and it still not be enough. Candy is on top of my list along with more crunchy chips. Big things coming, big things.

*pic context: Caleb put about a 1/3 chunk of summer sausage, a chunk of cheese, and a chunk of pepperoni all into one tortilla with one mayo packet. Too lazy to cut anything and then munched it