Date Tags hiking / pct

Weather report: Sunny, high overcast, a bit of wind.

Wildlife seen: Horny toads. Velvet ants. No snakes for once.

I lolled around in bed. I didn't get up until 7, I didn't get on the trail until 8:30. The weather was odd, a cool windy day with high overcast. The trail was also odd--it wasn't well maintained, rocky, eroded. I worried about ticks a bit, but I was more worried about my feet.

I finally have blisters. Sigh. They're not where I expected--one's on the inside of my left heel, a big old blood blister, the other is pretty much my entire left pinky toe. I taped them up before bed, and took the tape off in the morning. Bad idea; it ripped off a layer of skin. Oh well, it'll grow back. Painfully of course.

Around mile 100 (yay) the trail ducked into actual oak woodland, and then in another mile was Barrel Spring. The landscape was green and lush, I filled up water and caught up with Toast and Copenhagen, who'd camped near me last night.

We walked north along the trail for the next several miles, through grassy flower filled fields and up and down scrubby hills.

It was wonderful landscape, and at mile 106 we stopped for pictures at Eagle Rock.

I started feel sluggish, and hobbled a bit into Warner Springs, setting up camp next to the Resource Center... which has flush toilets... a grassy patch... a picnic tables... and wi-fi. (Note to future campers: don't camp close to the center. Camp in the leaf litter under the huge oak tree, just behind the fence and the outbuilding. It was very dewy in the morning, and 38F, and the light on the outbuilding with the thermometer stays on all night.)

I made a great dinner of couscous topped with crushed Fritos. It was really tasty. Tomorrow I pick up my resuppy box at the Warner Springs post office and then head north.

Oh, on the blisters: they feel bad when I think about them, but what more can I do? They've self-popped, so I just put Neosporin on them and taped them up with leucotape. That's about all I can do; just need to suck it up and itll get better.