Well that was an interesting night for the boys. They slept side by side with Bryan who was snoring up a storm. Bryan also has this super thick sleeping pad with rails on the side that he inflates with a separate airbag. This pad is also very light, which means it makes a load of noise when Bryan moves around….which he does quite abit.
The snoring started instantly. Bryan was worn out. Anthony wakes him up, Bryan apologizes, shifts around noisily, then starts snoring 5 minutes later. I hear Anthony and Storm talking and sighing. The process repeats several times (at least until I fall asleep). Those guys got zero sleep. Me…slept like a rock. I’m laying on a shelf 15 feet away from all the mayhem. Nice to not be “that guy” for once.
Anyway, first guy out is StormTrooper. He is packed before 6 and is like “hey man, I just gonna go, see you at the water cache” and he bolts. I head out shortly after followed by Bryan and Anthony. We all make the 3rd gate water cache and hang out for a bit eating and chatting. Storm and I are the first to leave. It is a nice hike. Mostly low rolling hills so I can keep a decent pace.
Next stop is Barrel Springs at 1 ish. There are a ton of hikers hanging out. 35 is there with Billy, Endless, QB (his wife), Vincent, and a few rando’s that I don’t know. We all sit around for a few hours to wait out the heat. Part of the fun is watchng Bryan taking a bath in the water trough. He is washing his feet, socks, and other parts. The water trough is filled by a trickle coming from a pipe fed further up hill. Most of us fill up our water from that pipe, but Endless, he is having none of that. Instead he fills up his bottles from trough full of Bryan’s foot wash. God, I wanted to gag. He’s like “hey the filter will clear that out”. I don’t know if those filters are designed to filter out ball sweat. Barf.
Some PhD type shows up while we are laying there. He’s a total daisy. He starts going on about climate change and how the US is completely responsible. Bryan and him are debating the causes and solutions. I keep quite but make one comment about controlling the world population which lights Bryan up. He’s making an argument about technology growth being ahead of population, after which he draws an diagram in the sand about the exponential growth of technology being ahead of linear population growth. Man.
There are flaws in his argument and he knows it. PhD has flaws in his argument but he doesn’t know it. Meanwhile Bryan is trying to draw me in. I look over at StormTrooper and give him the “Let get the f&*k out of here” look. We both pack up while nodding and bail out.
The rest of the hike is easy to San Ysidro Creek. Huge sandy spot next to a slow stream. Unfortunately there are dried cow pies all over the place. I setup next to them, have a quick dinner with Anthony, Storm, and Bryan. We have a short debate about how far to go tomorrow. I want my 25 miler. StormTrooper is on board, but the other guys are not interested. We agree to get into Warner Springs and figure it out.