Tuesday – April 27 – Blistering Heat
The story of the day was heat: 104F at Scissors Crosings acording to Ert Angels Thermometer and part of a recod setting string of hot days in Southern CA.
The early morning was pleasant as we were still walking along the ridge north of Mt Laguna. We quckly dropped into Chariot Canyon, with wals ablaze, carpeted in a great variety of white, yellow and purple flowers. The star of the show was the Prickly Poppy, a tall white flower.
A mile before Rodriguez Spur road we saw our first rattlesnake of the hike. Coiled up beside the trail, inside a small bush, he could have made a nasty surprise for anyone unlucky enough to have planted a hiking pole too close. We prodded him into moving away.
The water tank at Rodriguez was a scene of relief and joy – time to socialize, drink, clean feet, fix blisters and listen to Monty’s description of what little shade would lie ahead. Each foot now suports several blisters, which seems to be the same situation for everyone. From this point on, the heat tried to rachet up and the shade to disintegrate. In the next ten miles, to Scissors XC, there were only two decent shady spots and we took advantage of them, along with several other hikers. We leap-frogged with Monty, Jeff, Lexi, Dave and several others.
At Scissors, the 3 gallons of water we had cached on the way to Campo was intact. And the “regular cache had just been repleneshid with 60 gallons by “Freefall”, but best of all was Ert Angel’s very timely “Trail Magic” – ice cold sodas,with apples and carrots!!
We washed in the creek and waited in the shade for about 3 hours, along with a dozen or so other hikers, for the cool of the evening. Some were staying to camp there and try an early start and one day crossing of the San Felipe Hills to Barrel Springs. Some woud hike a few miles this evening. Its a 23 mile waterless, shadeless stretch. We left at 6pm to try and get to a makeshift campsite on a saddle that I remebered from ’94. I don’t know f its the same one, but at 7:45pm, just before dark we found a decent place to camp on a saddle marked by a rock cairn about 4.5 miles up the trail. Home! after a 21 mile day. The legs feel strong, but the feet are sore from sweat, sand and searing heat, not to mention the weight of carrying 6 liters of water.
About half way up we passed Ert Man, Trail Mix and Red dog, camped in a sandy wash.
The night is pleasant, no clouds and a light breeze so we set out the sleeping bags on our groundsheet, leaving the tent packed away. All the better to make an early stary tomoorow at first light to try and beat the heat.
