Day 5 Part 2 : Nighthike

24th April 2013
Mile 78.5 to mile 91.5 : Scissors Crossing to Third gate cache
Total Mileage today : 18 miles

The night hike went well, really well in fact. I left the Julian library and stood on the road waiting for a ride, the weather wasn't quite so bad as I first thought but it was clear we were in a cloud so it was cold and clammy with no visibility. I got a hitch back to Scissors with Roz and her daughter Nicole who live in the same small community as Laura who gave me the hitch up to Julian in the first place. I got out and thanked them for the ride making sure I got all my stuff out and didn't make the same mistake as the guy this morning. I ducked back under the bridge to find Dominic there sheltering from the wind. Dominic had already put in an 18 mile day but agreed to accompany me for at least the first few miles of the night hike. As we sat eating dinner I remembered that he had already been given the trail name Sourcream the night before we left Scout and Frodo's a few days earlier. He acquired this due to the fact that in the morning before we left he ate 33/4 quarters of a bowl of what he thought was yoghurt before someone pointed out that it was infact sourcream, and the name stuck.
As we stood up to put our rucksacks on we noticed a small sign advising us not to camp under the road due to the large pack of coyotes in the area that frequent the crossing at night, I was glad to on the move.

Sourcream and I hit the trail just before 8pm and started the long climb into the San Felipe hills in the fading light.  An hour later Sourcream, who by now had done over 20 miles, was feeling pretty shattered and decided to call it a day. given that by that time my day's total was only 7.5miles pressed on with the climb into the night. The trail hugged the left side of a ridge line that climbed steadily up into the hills with the desert floor getting farther and farther away as I climbed. The camber of the trail meant that more stress was put on the inside of my right ankle and sure enough before long it began to hurt. Oddly enough though the pain was comforting as it meant there was nothing acutely wrong with my other ankle that had been sore and hurting during the climb on day 2 up to Mt Laguna. My ankles are just not used to this sort of abuse after a long stretch in the office environment and are making sure I know they're taking their time to adapt to the trail. In a couple days though I'll be resting them for 2 + days during and after  the Kick Off festival so as long as the pain doesn't get too bad I won't worry about them too much. Sourcream's departure after the first hour meant I was now hiking on my own for the first time. Up until now I have been hiking with others, or at least leap frogging past them throughout each day never more than a mile away from the nearest hiker. This hiking was different though, the trail was rocky and exposed to the howling wind which fortunately was mostly behind me and blowing me uphill. Although the moon shone brightly enough that i didn't need my head torch it was still difficult to see every step clearly making some of the more exposed sections more than a little hair raising. For a while I enjoyed the freedom of being on my own, I could set my own pace without ever having to wait for anyone else and could take as many or as few breaks as I wanted, but mostly i missed the company of the other hikers I'd met to date. I did however very much enjoy hiking at night. My feet don't overheat and therefore don't blister, i don't sweat very much at all and consequently only need to carry a small amount of water. I packed 4.5 litres for the the 23 miles but probably won't use it all. At 1:30am I arrived at the Third gate cache at mile 91 and decided to stop. I could have pushed farther but my feet were tired and the wind also made me worry about not being able to stay warm should I have been unable to find shelter farther up the trail. There was water at Third gate but didn't use any. My plan initially was to top up here were i running low, but it turns out over the 13 previous miles even with the climb i only used 2 litres, so should be able to do the next 10 with what i have left in my bag. I got out my groundsheet and sleeping bag and crawled into bed to get a few hours sleep before my alarm was due to go off  4 hours later for me to get up and complete the hike before the heat of the next day. A long eventful day over.


Clouds flowing down from Julian



The view back to Rodriquez Spur Tank near mile 68