Saturday May 1 – May Day
May-be we’ll finally hike today. In fact we did manage to release ourselves from the sordid pleasures of Warner’s hot springs and eating and drinking opportunities….some towns have a vacumn-like grasp and this was one of them. But at noon we pulled away and hit the trail.
The first few miles were a pleasant walk along Agua Caliente Creek, shaded by occasional oak trees. Tthe trail gradually climbed into shadeless chapparal. Our rewards for the hot, steady climb were the increasingly panoramic vistas.
Since it is Sat there were several large groups – a couple dozen equestrians, a large youth-oriented group of day hikers and a group of about 15 weekenders. The most noteworthy aspect of today’s hike is the paucity of thru hikers. We only ran into only 9 others, scattered along the trail, but all of whom ended up at the Lost Valley spur road to the springs as we were having dinner. It is a diferent group than we saw before Warner, the “shuffle” having worked.
After dinner, the Carrot and I walked on for another 75 minutes to take advantage of the cooler evening air and 3/4 full moon. We are camped on a saddle admist chaparrel at about the 4,500 ft elevation level, with very clear and star studded skies, no tent and lots of interesting criter calls.
