Jammin' with Jameson

17.4 miles. Again, I had one of the most rewarding while challenging days. I didn’t end up waking up until 6:30 because my body needed to sleep in from staying up late. I made it half a mile to the river last and was delighted that I got to enjoy the ice cold water while it was already hot out(even though I wasn’t happy about the hot out part). It felt incredible to dunk my entire body in the few inches deep water. It took a while to do all the ritual things, but it was so cool seeing all the hikers start to roll in and enjoy this little slice of heaven. I dunked my entire body again in the river to prepare for the heat and miles that were awaiting me. What I didn’t realize about the day was how much elevation we were going to gain. After 6 miles of nondescript desert, we reached another smaller creek that we would follow for the rest of the day. We all ate first lunch and consumed as many calories as we could. At this point, we were all likely eating 4000-5000 calories a day and I wasn’t sure how we could end up eating more if our hiker hunger hadn’t fully set in yet. We started the next stretch until siesta following an incredibly elusive trail that zig zagged across the stream, the wash, dry river beds, and elevated banks. I got lost multiple times, but managed to dunk my hat in the water every time I crossed to have something to cool myself down. Even though it was slow going, incredibly hot, and physically demanding, it was one of the most unique landscapes we had seen thus far and I was so happy to see this column of green life that was following the water source. I finally reached the spot my group had chosen for siesta after 2 hours and plunked down in the shade. Lunch was a wrap with 2 servings of couscous, tuna, nutritional yeast, mayo (half calorie packet… boo), relish, and crushed yo crackers along with lots of trail mix. After lunch, I passed out immediately and drooled all over myself. Worth it. We slowly got up and decided it was cool enough to start hiking at 4:30. It was not. It was hot. I had earlier decided that I was only going to go a campsite a little earlier than I originally planned because the days terrain was much harder than I expected. The next few hours were slow going and grueling. I met up with a hiker we met on San Jacinto named P Diddy who was trying to do the trail in 100 days and used to work festivals for Eno. At the last water source for the day, I met Glowstick’s Italian friend and had Glowstick walk up a few minutes later after not seeing him on the sentiero since the morning. Gizbarro! I walked the last 1.5 miles to my campsite and really started feeling my ankles on the last few hundred feet. Worst of all, there were mosquitos everywhere so I had to cave and set up my tent for the first time in a days. Here’s to an early start tomorrow to beat the heat.