Best Campsite, Worst Dinner

Day 9

Today, we woke in our bags to a chilly damp morning. We shook out our tent fly, packed up, and hit the road. We had 8 miles until we got to a road where we would walk into this little town to grab some food and rest, and then another 10 miles to where we intended to camp.

The first section of the hike was relatively uneventful. We were half asleep the whole time, honestly. We did go through some cow pastures, and were inches away from many moo cows. We passed by Eagle Rock, but weren't impressed so hiked on. When we got to the road, we walked the mile into town to find that it wasn't  really a town so much as a golf course. That being said, they had everything we needed, so we weren't complaining.

We had breakfast there, relaxed, got our resupply, and took a midday nap behind the post office. Then we went back to the restaurant to have lunch. We found out the rooms were 65 bucks, had Internet, TV, a pool, and hot springs out back. We were bummed we didn't hold out for Warner Springs, but when we remembered that we skipped the days in the rain because we were in Julian, all was well.

In town, we me a big group of hikers. We are seemingly catching up to the 'pack'. To be honest, half the ones we met were younger annoying kids. They were hiking out today too, so we had to push past them. After we left, the hike was mainly uphill. It was fairly hot out too, but there was a nice breeze now and then. We passed by this really nice brook, and great campsites, but the other hikers took them, and we had planned to go further anyway, so we trekked on.

Lots of uphill, and many sore body parts later, and we made it to our campsite. The spring was just off the trail, and the first one was very much like last nights water source. However, we walked on a hundred feet and found a nice clear running stream. Got back to camp, set up, and got dinner ready.

Luckily for us, we had great -- and filling -- meals today. The only instant mashed potatoes that were at the store were 'original' (i.e. no flavor). To add insult to injury, I put too much water in them because last night's didn't have enough. Basically, we ate slop. Tasteless, textureless, and difficult to eat. We actually couldn't finish it. Fortunately the view from our campsite is gorgeous, so it made up for that. We are about 4500 feet up on the side of the mountain, so we have a wide open view of the valley below.

Looking forward to a good night's rest!

--Ian