Day 2: The Drag

Wednesday, April 26
Start: Lake Morena
Stop: Lower Meadow Morris Spring
20 miles

The first miles are cool and after I get up on a ridge top I message Lil’ Buddha. Bear update is that the bear outsmarted the culvert trap probably due to the wet soggy soil and unstable footing of the trap.

At Boulder Oaks campground, I order a new pair of shoes because mine have formed a lump under the ball of my right foot. So it’s 10am before I’m pushing out of there on the hot climb. The heat is intense and it sucks out my energy. I finally pull out my umbrella and I imagine that it helps me be cooler. Once I realize that I’m not going to make it to Mt. Laguna before 5pm, I slow my pace down and take a nice long break at Fred Canyon where there’s a trickling stream.

The continued climb is hot, slow and pretty miserable. The negative thoughts flood my brain. Why am I here? What was I thinking? Maybe I should just go home. This is hard. This sucks. I wanted to start doing 25s but I also must listen to my body. As soon as I start to throw away my schedule I feel better. I’m not as young as I used to be either. My umbrella is up and I fight a bit against the wind. Cool sighting is Jack Haskel from the PCTA and he’s out doing a southbound section. We chat a bit before I drag myself upward to the cool Long Canyon Creek. From there it’s only another mile until I find home for the night and find out my shoe order was cancelled by Amazon.