Day 2: Mile 8.8 - 20.0

I woke to the sound of rain, only it wasn't rain, it was condensation from my tent dripping down on my sleeping bag. Hmm, not so good. I had picked a campsite tucked narrowly between bushes, a small sandy spot, flat for just as wide as my tent footprint. A tricky setup, but good experience (or at least that's what I kept telling myself!). As for the sleeping, that was also rocky: my face kept freezing, so I would descend deeper into my sleeping bag, then it would get muggy, so I would ascend--rinse wash repeat. But the first night out is always rocky for me, so it's not unexpected.

Today is when the trail started to show its teeth, especially around Hauser Creek. The descent down the canyon to Hauser Creek was the first technical section--a trail runner's dream--and the ascent out the other side of the canyon the first climb. It was a tough climb but doable: complicated by the heat (I would often look up and root for that puffy cloud to make it just there and block that unyielding sun), slow going. But luckily I've done this sort of climb many times: it's like the airport approach on the TCT (albeit a bit longer), or the upper part of San Juan to the Lollipop (albeit a bit shorter). So I have my techniques: 1) let breathing determine pace and breathe through the nose (there's an old runner's trick for that: take a gulp of water and keep it in your mouth), 2) use the rest step judiciously, and 3) use the butt push as needed (that's wherep

 I push my hips back, forcing the body to activate different muscles, on the theory that the variety helps forestall fatigue). With those, and experience, I headed up, climbing up the exposed switchbacks, past the false crest, over the following long bluff, and eventually Lake Morena spread out down below on the other side--quite a sight let me tell you!

Because water was on my mind. I had thought to do the first 20 miles with 4 L, but at Hauser Creek, looking up that ascent with 1 L left, decided to get some extra. So, after some instructions from Bob, I wandered up a dirt road, took a right at a cairn, and dropped down to a little pool, evidently coming up from a seep below, in a narrow cleft surrounded by poison oak. That was not fun, and I spent the rest of the day and night worried about that urushiol. But I got my extra 1 L, which, of course, it turned out I didn't need, but which was reassuring anyway. 

Lake Morena itself is a large series of campgrounds, and full to near bursting. Quite a change from the emptier stretches I'd come from. A bit flower-eyed (hua1 yien3--it's a Chinese construction), I eventually wandered over to the entry booth, where I stood in line between a pickup truck (asking whether the lake had been recently stocked with trout) (it had), and another pickup truck. Which was kind of fun. PCT hiker?, the ranger said when it was my turn. Yep, I said. There's a PCT section in the back, she said, it's $5. Hmm, I said, I'm not familiar with this place, I don't even know where the front is, let alone the back! So she gave me a map, and I gave her $5, and I wandered over to the PCT area (which was, indeed, in the back), and set up my tent. A pretty early end to the day, but a comfortable one, and getting to enjoy the sunset--with the layered white clouds above almost dripping gray, against a sky going blue to purple to pink, was quite a treat!

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Some notes

-- Noticed more animals this day. In the morning I would keep running into these swarms of, well, it's like a half-fly half-gnat with long wings, that would congregate on the ground, then fly up into my face as I inadvertantly stepped over. I'd swat and walk on, but at one point, about 10 minutes after passing a swarm, I found one of their smushed corpses still stuck to my cheek!

-- And there were snakes: two snakes on the trail, the first lazily upslope but lazily dangling his tail onto the trail. I stood a while, pretty close, to see if he'd move but he didn't, so I softshoed around him and continued. The second, sitting on a rock beside the trail, just hanging out, uncaring about the lumbering hiker passing by. And finally, at the PCT area of Lake Morena, as I was setting up my tent a fatter snake wandered around the campground, attracting much interest, eventually going down into a hole maybe a yard or two from my tent. Ah well: it's technically his home--I'm just visiting--so if he wants to mosey over to his foyer, who am I to argue? None of the snakes were rattlers, by the way; I don't know anything about snakes, but was told the last one, at Lake Morena at least, wasn't venomous.

-- And lastly, the lizards. Look, when the lumbering monster (me) chases you along a narrow track (the trail), you don't run *along* the track, you jump *off* the track, to the side, where the beast is too big to follow! Gees, guys, this isn't a Hollywood action-adventure flick: show some common sense! 😋

-- For dinner, I had a ramen + seaweed + pork sung and, let me tell you, it was xian2 de5 bu4 xiang4 yang4! Good, but xian2 de5 bu4 xiang4 yang4!