Didn’t know it last night, but we are camped almost underneath several huge wind generators.    Could hear their whoosing, but it was cool waking at dawn under these swinging blades.   

Video of Generators in the Morning

I’m first up and first packed.    I do my usual stretches, but my leg is still killing me.    This is definitely a new injury for me.   I dose up on Ibuprofen and take off while the others are packing.   I’m pretty sure everyone will be passing me today. 

Turns out that I can climb without much pain.   The flats hurt and the downhills are pain-stabbed misery.    It was mostly climbing so I did alright. 

After 6 miles, the heat was getting ridiculous again.    Most of us stopped at Tylerhorse canyon to get water, find shade, and wait it out.   The hard part was that the shade was skimpy.   We were jockeying around trying to find shade that would last a few hours for a nap before moving.   I had to relocate 4 times throughout the day.   Bam Bam tried huddling valiantly under his umbrella until giving up and disappearing somewhere up stream.    

Most were napping until 2ish, when folks began drifting together in some shade near the stream.   Spent a few hours chit chatting.    Manny and I spent some time geeking out on the wind farm, trying to figure out how the blades control their speed, the peak and average output, etc.   The rest of the group….well, they talked about something else.  

I filled up my water bottles and bladder from the creek.   Laying on the ground looking at my bladder, I noticed some of the sediment in the bag was moving.   Hmm.   On closer inspection I found various sea creatures swimming around in my drinking water.    They seemed happy in there.   According to one of the guys a few looked like mosquito larvae.   Hope my filter still works.

Folks started pulling out at 4:00.   I was the last to leave, since my leg is still hurting.   I know it is going to be a long night.  Goal is get another 17 miles in tonight.  

The trail is rather dull up/down ridge running.    The ups are fine, the downs are pain-wracked.  

In the fading light I found a nice vantage point to take a good panoramic at around mile 545.   For the last 3 weeks most of the trail has been going West and Northwest.   Only now is it switching to North and Northeast.  This picture is looking South and shows the mountains and hills we have been hiking through over the last 2+ weeks.   Mostly blocked at the extreme left is the 15 coming through the Cajon pass.  Moving to the right is probably Baden-Powell.   It might even be the peaks around Wrightwood.   Center is Angeles Forest.  To the right are the hills North of Lake Hughes.    

Panoramic of the last 3 weeks of hikingHad dinner on top of some ridge as the wind was building up.  Both before and after dinner was mostly climbing so I made decent progress.   Into the night.    Then the trail flattened and the pain became unbearable.   I setup for the night at around mile 550, giving me a pathetic day total of 15 miles.  

The shin splints on my right leg are definitely hurting more.   Even worse, my limping around is causing me to favor my left foot which is developing hot spots.   Those will soon be blisters if I don’t change something.   I wrapped my leg in magical unicorn duct tape.   Maybe that will help.