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Day 9: unplanned stops

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Day 9
Miles: 12
Agua caliente spring to trail angel Mike’s house

I don’t know if the tarp saved us from dew last night, but it caught five big bird bombs for us, and all on my side. I’ll chalk that up for a win.

The area where we camped is basically a poison oak farm, and hiking out of the Agua Caliente valley is a poison oak gauntlet. I’m leading the way, and my morning conversation with J consists nearly entirely of poison oak alerts: “left side… right side…right side, left side, both sides! Both sides!” We spend some time speculating on why, if it’s poisonous, is it also camouflaged? All the sidling and ducking aggravates my wonky knee.
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Day 8: taking a break

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Day 8
Miles: 5
May 9, 2014
Warner Springs to Agua Caliente Creek (mile 115)

Cowboy camping turned out to not be a great idea. It was barely dark when we got hit with a heavy dew – the tops of our sleeping bags felt drenched, but it was too late to fix it and too late to care. I slept badly. My feet ached so badly that they woke me up all night. (Although that meant that I woke up to the milky way glimmering overhead – squinting through sleep to appreciate it, just for a moment.)
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Day 6: twenty miles

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Day 6
Miles: 20
Mile 71 (anza borrego) to mile 91 (san felipe hills)

J is telling me to wake up – it’s morning. I’m totally stiff – I don’t think I moved once the entire night. Our little campsite is calm and quiet. We’ve got some miles to make.

The trail has taken us through the hills of Anza Borrego state park, then traversed across their north face. Today we’ll need to finish the traverse, cross the valley, then head back up the San Felipe hills. We can see the switchbacks from here. There are no water sources in reach today. There are two water caches, but last I heard the scissors crossing water cache was no longer being maintained, and I don’t know much about the other. J and I still have nearly nine liters apiece, so we’ll be fine regardless, but we’re starting out heavy. I feel very grounded, as in, pressed into the ground.
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Day 4: Flower fields forever

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Day 4
Miles: 12
May 5, 2014
Mt laguna to 12 miles from mt laguna (mile 55)

Waking up is tough, just like during the rest of my life. But I’m feeling surprisingly good. I spend 20 minutes babying my feet, lancing blisters and the such, and soon it’s time to get going. I think these gel insoles might be a game changer.

Like a bunch of amateurs, we left our food bag sitting on the table overnight. Now I have huge holes in my food bag and we’ve lost half the bagel chips. I spend a while trying to mend it, but J is super antsy so we head out. We stop by the Mt Laguna outdoor supply store one more time on our way out. Dave says there’s a wind advisory out, winds of up to 85 mph(!) possible tonight, and warns us against camping on several of the campsites marked on the Halfmile maps.
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Day 0: the beach

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Day: 0
Miles: 0

Speeding through night towards San Diego, J said, “So don’t hate me, but would you entertain the idea of not starting hiking tomorrow, and taking a beach day instead?”

I instantly hated the idea. Another day of STILL not starting? Then my exhaustion punched me in the face and told me to come to my senses.

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