Only needing 10 miles to McDonald's today which gave me a nice boost of motivation when cleaning up camp. It was a beautiful sunrise from on top of the hill I climbed yesterday evening. My legs were TIRED! The muscles still hadn't recovered/relaxed from walking nearly 22 miles. I had the fortune to learn about Poison Oak today before it was a real issue. Once I learned what it looked like as well as the pneumonic "leaves of three, leave it be", I started to see it everywhere. In some spots, had I not known what to look for, I would have actually hit a lot of it with my bare legs.
The last stretch before Micky D's was very enjoyable. There was a small creek flowing through the canyon. I would have stopped to take a mid day break had it not been 0.5 miles before McDonald's. I started with a salad, two chicken sandwiches and an Oreo McFlurry. It was the perfect first lunch. As more and more hikers trickled in, the entry area was completely taken over by hikers. Some with their shoes on... Others with them off. It was a fun place to hang till 4ish. My second lunch consisted of an iced coffee, a second salad and a chocolate milkshake. Once again, I'm not every good st taking pictures of all these things.
The last part of the day was only 5 miles and it seemed to go by really fast. Despite me constantly stopping to take pictures as the evening sun presented incredible views. One of these posts I'll not used that phrase... But this is a scenic trail, which is all about the views from the "crest" of the hills.
At the campsite, I met Faraday, Monte and David. The group (Riley, Alyssa, skinny Thor, Anna, Leah, Viet, and Alex), were also there. Despite all of us eating 2000+ calories at McDonald's, we were all hungry after setting up camp. Also, it was warm out so we all sat around telling stories and eating dinner until it was dark which is normally bedtime.
The game plan for tomorrow is to wake up at 4:30 and hit the trail early enough so that we all arrive in Wrightwood by early to mid afternoon. We'll see if that actually happens.