Hike for a Hospital

I again set off last, but this time because I was waiting to unload my first desert brown with a little privacy. After shedding a pound or two I set off for another short 13 mile day. I continued to annoy southbound hikers and to my delight found a fellow geologist. Harvey is section hiking down to the kickoff with his mate Reece and it turns out he has done a lot of paleoseismology work in nz. He also mentored russ van dissen at humbolt state back in the day, who I met when helping Rach out with her wairarapa fault field work a few years ago. It surprises me how small the world is sometimes.

I hiked through the desert into the forest of mount laguna and saw a several cool desert lizards and a forest snake in the process.the snake was red with black and yellow stripes but is apparently not venemous.

I stopped by mt laguna store at mile 10 and met some thru hikers who did the pct last year. Quake offered me a beer and a chair and We drank outside the store and I listened to them chat about their times on the trail. As you are not allowed to drink in public in California we had to place our beers is conspicuous brown paper bags so the Sheriff would be none the wiser.

I resupplied at the store which for me consisted of a large 24oz (750ml) can of Budweiser, a pack of rasher bacon and some tortillas. I hiked a few more miles until a crazy storm set in which forced me to set up camp for the night. I cooked the bacon and made cheese and bacon burritos which were a party in my mouth when in combo with the excessively large beer.

It rained hard and the wind blew even harder (unbeknownst to me i was camping just beside a ridge) but my macpac micro light tent went pretty good, albeit with excessive condensation on the inside.