Miles 239.8–259.4 San Gorgonio Wilderness (19.6 miles)

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Rose: lovely siesta Thorn: finding a wood tick on my wet wipe at the end of the day, I’m paranoid now Bud: town tomorrow, I swear I will finally get a soft serve ice cream tomorrow!

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I slept in this morning. I woke up naturally at 4:15 but went back to sleep until my alarm went off at 5 am. Because I hadn’t gathered water the night before, I had to gather and filter water from the horse trough, so I didn’t leave camp until 6:30!

I enjoy our days high up in the hills; it’s cooler here, we can hike all day, and the views are lovely. The elevation profile was also a lot kinder to us today too. We climbed up and down ridges, never more than 400–500’ up as we passed by San Gorgonio Peak toward Big Bear. I’m also more comfortable in the high altitude, because the vegetation changes to pine with dappled shade.

The comments on the Far Out app told us that a pit toilet lay 6.5 miles from our camp in the morning, so most of the crew held in their business only to find out that the pit toilet was locked! What rotten luck. I, thankfully, had already done the deed before leaving camp. We have become comfortable talking about our bowel movements. It’s a good indicator of our general health and digestion, which is important in the backcountry. One of the drugs that everyone carries is Imodium, which stops diarrhea. Nothings much worse on trail than diarrhea.

The miles went by fast thanks to the gentler terrain, light breeze, and cooler temperatures of the high altitudes.

Around 1 pm, I was super hungry, so I found shade under a juniper tree just out of sight from trail. I ended up staying until 3pm reading my book, eating lunch, and napping. The book is a detective novel, and all the storylines are finally starting to merge. It’s not incredibly gripping, but I would like to finish it.

I also changed my lunch eating habits today; I ate an actual meal of ramen and tuna. Usually I just eat a bar and some snacks. Compared to yesterday, I had a lot more energy for hiking after my break.

After lunch, I crushed the remaining 6 miles to our agreed-upon campsite. The rest said they had been worried about me when they didn’t see me at siesta. I like siestaing alone. I actually get some rest. I also figured that the others didn’t want to break for as long as I did. I needed a longer break; my ankle had started to hurt before the break. Not hurt-hurt, just achy some from the sidehilling (it doesn’t like rolling to the medial side).

Like the last week of camping, there were other hikers at our campsite too. The hikers tonight actually camp and joined our family through dinner and joined in a round of cards after dinner. Mitch taught everyone Yuker. I didn’t really pay too close of attention.