After a great night in a cabin, day 4 starts with us getting dropped off back where we were picked up the day before, the Lake Morena store. We arrived at about 630am and needed to get a quick resupply. Store opened at 7am and already there are townsfolk waiting to get their breakfast. Morena is a very small town and this is the only store. The food is fantastic and prices are pretty normal.
After the store opened up we grabbed breakfast and a few things to put in our bag and hiked on.
Today’s walk consisted of about 12.3 miles with a lot of elevation gain. Early in the hike we were crossing a lot of flat and small rolling hills and then after only a couple miles, there it was, Mt Laguna in the distance. This mountain sits at about 6000 feet and we were at around 2000 something at the base.
At an earlier point in the day I came across a river crossing where on the other side was a few thru hikers putting their shoes on. I didnt stop and walked right thru the calf deep water and kept walking. As I past them one of the hikers asked me “what about your shoes getting being wet?!” I replied in a friendly tone “I really dont give a f@!k” smiled and kept on going. Fast forward to about 8 miles later while I was taking a break on a large rock that same group caught up to me. Well, they gave me my trail name, Mr No Fu#ks.
Pushing up this mountain very quickly became a need as a storm started to roll in. Getting to the campsite was critical and it was still 4 miles up a climb. Pushing ourselves hard we manage to make it to Fred Campsite around 330pm and got setup just in time. It started raining on us about 10 minutes after we got there and now I’m stuck in my tent. As the hours passed more hikers started to show in the rain and were all frantically attempting to find sites to shelter themselves from the cold rain.
I spent the rest the my night in my shelter. How about we not talk about the beauty of hiking a trail like this and talk instead of some of the hardships. I know a lot of us talk about how beautiful the trail is or how amazing this or that is, but the reality of a hike like this is there is a lot of negative that comes with it too.
Here is one instance. As I slept in my tent, at one point around 2 am half of my tent collapsed on me while I tossed in my sleep (caused by a bad anchor point, my fault). If you haven’t slept in a single wall tent before then you might not know that condensation builds very heavily on the inside of your tent, from your breath and the temperature change on the other side of the wall. Anyways, I get woken up very rudely by a simi-frozen and wet tent on my face. It’s about 26 degrees, 2am, and now almost everything in my tent, including me, is wet and very very cold. Damn that was miserable and there is not a lot that you can do about it.
Embrace the suck.
(No photos of the camp site, I didnt even think about it while my hands were numb and I was starving/cold)
Morning arrives on day 5 and most are crawling out of their tents and all are pretty much miserable. The ground is wet, the tents are wet, gear is wet and it’s cold.
At one point I went to relive myself and I discovered two 1 gallon water jugs laying in the bushes that weren’t there the day before. I assume that immigrants came thru the area overnight and of course, they didnt want to be seen.
I was the last one to pack my bag and keep walking. I just felt horrible.
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