This is part 12 of the “Why We Hike” Series
April 18 / 11 miles / 1,776’ gain
Long Canyon to Mount Laguna Campground
Today we went through Mount Laguna. It was much prettier than Kelly thought it would be. There were lots pine trees and she wasn’t expecting to see pine trees until Idyllwild.
We stopped in at the store in Mount Laguna where Kelly bought more first aid supplies for her feet (she learned you can never bring too many Band-aids on these hikes) then sat down and bandaged them while I went to go get water from the rest stop. We also met Brian while she was bandaging her toes, he happened to be the guy in the tiny camp site at the creek crossing the night before.
Brian just graduated from SDSU. He’s on the trail until May 20th, when he promised his girlfriend he would get off and celebrate their 3 year anniversary. Kelly decided his trail name needs to be Boy Scout, because he prepared for just about anything. Boy Scout was carrying about a 50 lb. pack – a little heavy, but he wasn’t struggling like Walt was. No, he was enjoying his time out there on the trail, eating good food, taking lots of pictures and definitely hiking his hike. We respect that.
She took much longer to doctor her toes than either of us anticipated; all together we spent about 2 hours in the tiny town of Mount Laguna before moving on. We caught up with Eric again on the trail. He was hurting bad, he had blisters on the bottoms of both feet. Now I was hiking with 2 people in a lot of pain so I suggested that we look for a place to stop for the day. Kelly didn’t like the idea of stopping but she knew how slow we were moving and I convinced her that some rest might be the best thing at this point. Besides, Zach was still feeling tired from the previous day’s heat and we knew he could use the break.
Kelly is always trying to push for more miles, a “pusher” in hiking terms, which is why her trail name is now officially “Go-Go-Kelly”. It is what I wrote on poster board to encourage her when she was running Marathons, and now it seems to fit. A lot of the Thruhikers have trail names out here; it’s part of the culture. There is usually a funny story behind someone’s trail name, and it makes the whole experience that much more fun.
We were going to meet Eric at Mount Laguna Campground, but we took a different way and he never made it. Instead, we ran into Boy Scout and agreed to share his campsite – a great way to save on camp fees and have good company to boot! We all sat around the table eating and telling stories until dark, except Zach who relaxed by the tent, beckoning to come and sleep.
Unfortunately the showers weren’t turned on yet, and Kelly was a little disappointed that we had to go to bed smelly. I think she started to get used to the idea of that though. Zach on the other hand had no problem falling asleep no matter how filthy he was.
Continues here: Upper Chariot Canyon