Day 24
Today was going to be a long day as I had to get all the way to Wrightwood and in particular its post office before it closed, resupply, and get back to the trail and camp. I therefore set my alarm for 2:35 am was a bit slow to get out of the door, but still this should leave ample time. Was a bit chocked when I on my way back to the trail saw a mattress and realized a homeless guy was sleeping on it at some distance to a gas station. Soon after that while still heading back to the trail my headlamp died. Bummer. I thought it had plenty of juice and therefore not recharged it (my headlamp has an USB port for that). It could not be used while I was changing it either. However I found out that I could position my smartphone in my front pack that I use for my camera and thus have lights and two free hands. Yay! I got a lot of miles done quickly and perhaps due to being reenergized from the zero day. Some miles in, however, the spawn of satan aka. poodle dog bush showed its ugly face near the trail again. It was annoying to constantly be very mindful about where to put ones feet and a couple of times I got within inches of a plant. As previously alluded to Poodle Dog Bush smells like weed and you can often smell it before you see it. Well, weed can cause paranoia in its users, but the smell of weed now can induce paranoia in me thinking “where
is that poodle dog bush, where the heck is it?”. Thanks Pavlov! Some time later I got to the so-called “Acorn Trail” and had to either go down here doing 750m of elevation loss and the same back up when going back to the trail or take a more direct route, hitch and risk not making it to the post office before it closed and having to wait three days for it to open again. I chose not to risk and just bit through it making it in good time before the post office closing and I got my resupply done and back to the trail, though the walk back up was a bit though carrying lots of food and water. In hindsight I do regret that as I would very likely had made it the easier way but that is how it is and this day went easier than expected.
