360 miles in

OK, I have a few moments now to update.
I felt my first ever earthquake. It registered at 3.5 and was located just 2 miles from where I was sitting at the time. It was one single tremor and felt much the same as when a sudden powerful gust of wind hits a wood-framed house. It was there and gone so fast we weren't sure what happened til we had it confirmed on the news. I was in a town when it happened.

I finally have my hiker legs under me. I've increased the mileage substantially from my earlier days. In the last 3 days I've knocked out 75 miles. Yesterday was the hardest at a 28 mile day with 5000 feet gain in elevation and carrying 12 pounds of water over a dry 22 mile stretch. I didn't get into camp til 9:00 pm and was fairly exhausted. I'll be slowing down a bit after I reach the next town in 90 miles.

I'm in Wrightwood, CA at about 360. I'm here for a simple resupply and then I'll be out again tomorrow morning. Next stop Agua Dulce.

The heat has finally kicked in. Up until the last few days it has been unseasonably cold with occasional frost on the tent. One day I even hiked all day with an extra long sleeve shirt. But now it is stifling hot outside with temps in the 90's. It's a bit better at elevation, but not much.

I've hiked through several burned out sections of trail. One section was a burned out in '04 when I was on it. In fact Sarah and I were among the last ones through it as the fire chased us up a steep sided canyon. We saw the smoke behind us and didn't dare stop til long after we would have otherwise. This time I got to hike through the devastation and get to see the extent of the damage and it was considerable. I didn't know that so much had been burned in '04.

I had to skip a section of trail this year since it was closed for a fire. The fire was out but it was still closed to hikers. As in '04 this fire was started by a careless PCT hiker. I don't think that some hikers can really comprehend just how explosive the grass and other plant matter is in this area. It really takes next to nothing to start the fire ball rolling. I hope that in the future the hikers will stop setting fires. The resulting destruction will take decades to heal in such a water-starved area.

I've seen 6-10 rattlers. I don't usually jump at the sound of them, but a week ago one scared me right off the trail, which wasn't all that good since one side was a cliff and the other side was a drop-off. The rattler was right at chest height in a niche on the cliff-side and didn't rattle til I was right next to it. The snake was black as night and coiled. Once I was at a safe distance I got a photo of it. Oh, when I jumped off the trail I was able to pick a rock to hop on and didn't plummet down the hill side.

I haven't seen much other wild life except for a grey fox and hundreds of 5 inch lizards and a few horned toads.

My time is about up. More from further up the trail.