Day 3: Mile 20.0 - 37.1

Lake Morena Campground is strange in the morning, When I had gone to sleep last night, it was hopping: the campgrounds full of tents and campers and RVs, all manner of folks and strung-up lights and barbeque and parents sitting around in chairs relaxedly letting the kids run around. And then in the morning, it's all quiet and still and empty. Very strange!

I got started this morning at 9am: an improvement over my 10am start yesterday, but one that can still be bettered. There's more to optimize, to be sure. I started by first going back: heading back to where the PCT first meets Lake Morena Campground, and proceeding from there, just to ensure continuity of the PCT proper. It's an engineering thing about graph connectivity and the intersection of sets--eh, let's just say it's an engineering OCD thing.

The trail today went through all manner of landscapes. From starting in a manzanita grove, where cross trails would suddenly appear, only to disappear around the bend of the red trunks, mysterious and enticing; to climbs up hillsides, looking over the vast expanse of the valley, the traffic on the silver road humming along. At one point, just after Buckman Springs, the trail follows alongside Buckman Springs Road, where it looks over a sudden wide pasture of green grasses, punctuated by isolated oaks and the occasional fallen trunk, and on the far side, painted in yellow wildflower. And for that brief mile, the world opened wide, time spread to the rhythms of season and bloom and slow decomposition. And even as the cars buzzed by on the road behind me, I thought, this isn't even remote or secluded otherwise hidden: you can literally see it from your car on your way somewhere else: you just need to *look*. 

Leslie used to say, "Life is awesome". She was right, although what made more sense to me came years later, when I figured out the corollary: "The world is beautiful".

More sights: between Highway 8 and Kitchen Creek Road the PCT winds its way up a canyon, curving around the slopes on an incline as a stream flows down below. You could see folks playing in the water: at one point, I saw a PCT hiker, all by his contented lonesome, dipping his feet in a pool. This is a wonderful little jaunt and the locals know it: I saw two girls walking their well-trained dogs up the slope, and I met a day-hiker who told me, yeah, the creek flows pretty much year round. Incredibly pretty, with the glint of the water against the matte of the rocky streambed, all confined within the steep slopes of the canyon. Quite a sight!

Overall, the trail today was uphill, but mostly of the incline, rather than straight climb, variety. Although this did get me into trouble: I pushed today, ended up going a lot farther than I had intended, and now my body is starting to complain, mostly of the chaffing in my shoulders and (strangely) the back of my knees. To be fair, if there was a day to do it, it would be today, since tomorrow is a near-zero day in Mount Laguna, with the benefit of a motel room, a shower, and a bed. But we'll see how recovery goes: I ate two dinners tonight, clearly to speed along recovery, and not out of gluttony. 😋

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Some notes:

-- More on the views: past Kitchen Creek Road, the trail inclines up these hills that look over this vast valley where you feel you can see for miles. Wide open, green albeit still leaning towards dusty (perhaps it'll turn hydrated?), and very windy, which kept the heat away.

-- Why did I go longer? I had intended to stop around mile 34, but then there was still light and still life in my legs, and the campsite at mile 37 advertised big oaks and shelter from the wind, so I went for it. Only it was filled. So I continued to the campsite at mile 38. Only it was full. And the one a little past that. And it was full. But it was getting late, so I turned back, and made my own campsite on a bluff, the sound of the stream just below, on a small bit that was flat enough. Lesson learned, though: at least in the early parts, campsites fill up early in the day, so grab what you can when you can, even if it means a shorter day!