I slept in a little bit, spent a little time on the phone finishing up a podcast out loud while packing in the tent. I paused it when I heard two women walking by talking about tequila mixed drinks. I was closer to the trail than I thought, though they gave no sign of noticing my tent when passing, low as it was behind some bushes.
Although I still had to do a small amount of repacking and also clean the pan I’d used, I didn’t have to tear down a tent or roll up a mat, so it was still easy enough to get out and lock up by 9:30am. I even had enough time to finally make use of the razors I’d been carrying around since Idyllwild, and there was a LOT of excess facial hair to remove. It took a solid 15 minutes to mow it all down.
It was really quite cold when I got out of bed. I had on every last bit of clothing. I decided to take a walk to the Sunrise Trailhead (because of the privy there) and back before starting my pack-up in hopes that the sun would reach it by the time I started. The walk was about half a mile each way, and I got back around an hour later. I got on the trail by 9am.
It was a pretty cold morning tucked into that shady ravine, but I still managed to get back on the trail by 8am, just before the direct sunlight reached my nook, having been passed by a man I had not seen or heard pass who was now just a hundred yards ahead. Over the course of the next mile, I caught up to him and passed him on a switchback descending the ridge toward Scissors Crossing.
It remained cold all night and well into the morning, so I found it very difficult to peel myself out of the warm sleeping bag, even well after it was uncomfortable to do so.
I woke up relatively early, but I knew I had no great reason to hurry, given I was only planning to go a few miles to Mountain Valley Retreat. Also, I didn’t need to conserve energy because I could plug in there. So I laid in bed for most of an hour with my phone.
Once again I had great motivation to get an early start. I needed to get to Warner Springs before the post office closed to pick up my last resupply box. It was the same one I had sent from Washington to Crater Lake, where it was held for a week before being sent back to Washington, where the UPS Store forwarded it to the Etna Motel, who resent it to Warner Springs. Basically, it had been bouncing all over creation for two solid months, but it wasn’t going to waste!
A reasonable start again, probably hiking around 8. I still had a full bag of water from the restaurant and many miles to go before I would reach any reliable water.
I didn’t sleep in again. It wasn’t as cold, and I had good reason to get going. It was 11 miles to the road to Paradise Valley Cafe, and the restaurant closed at 3pm on Mondays. No way was I missing out on a hot burger and a beer for lunch.
Another one of those days where I just couldn’t get started. Late wake up, slow pack up, groggy. I think it was after 9, probably close to 10, by the time I was hiking.
The trail started out easy enough until I came around the top of Red Tahquitz and onto the sharp side of the ridge.