This weekend we camped up at Burnt Rancheria campground up near Mt. Laguna. We did an out-and-back day hike from the camp south along the PCT (towards Cibbets Flat) for a total of about 6.5-miles just to enjoy the trail. The PCT 50-mile ultra marathon was being held at the same time, so it was fun to hoot for the runners going by. Those folks are nuts, but we have to admit that it sounds like a lot of fun. Who knows, maybe some day!
Also met a nice Japanese couple from New Zealand that were through-hiking. They were funny. I don't think that they had ever seen a snake before, and were quite concerned about rattlesnakes (they didn't know what they look like or what to do when you see one.) Rightfully so, as they surely would be running into them. They had these strange counterbalance packs on the front of their bodies, attached to their shoulder straps. They looked more like pack animals than backpackers. Again, PCT folk are funny.
After our hike I left Allie and Atticus at camp to do some recon on the trail sections between camp down to Pedro Fages Trailhead. I wanted to see where the trail came close enough to the highway so as to provide jump on/off points for future hikes, and to evaluate the possibility of doing bike shuttles instead of having to rely on cars. I have plenty of data collected, but haven't yet decided on the best way to hike this section. We'll wait till later to decide, and much will be dependent upon how hot it gets up there by the time we will be able to hike in that area. One thing that occurred to me is that it would be fun to camp at Burnt Rancheria to hike two consecutive days up there, maybe get all the way down to Pedro Fages trailhead in a single weekend this way. Also, I had the thought that I could get up early, go solo and drop off my car at the end of where we would hike that day, then ride my bike back alone to the start point of the hike. This would save a lot of time, and also be a lot easier than having to haul Atticus back up a hill behind me on the bike. It's fun exploring different ways that all this hiking could be done. All part of the adventure.
We're excited about this weekend's 18-miler. We have two people joining us we have never met, Steve and Dan. They came aboard through the Meetup.com website we created. We may even be joined by two additional friends who have said that they would like to come too. This could turn into one big group hike. That's great... more people to help carry Atticus! He surely will talk their ears off. I know he will enjoy his new friends.
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