By the end of today my feet had definitely had enough. Mount Laguna seemed a world away and when we hadn’t reached it by 6pm tonight we started getting concerned. Luckily after Pack Man and I walked in the wrong direction for half a mile Roll Up and trail angel Dave pulled up in a pick up truck to get us!

In the morning I felt a stinging pain in my shoe and it wasn’t until 30 minutes later that I took off my shoes and discovered my big toe was numb. When I looked inside the shoe I discovered a small black spider that must have bit me. Roll Up said if my foot was ok tomorrow all should be well. It’s feeling pretty good now so let’s hope it stays that way.

It was cold last night and I felt like I was awake at least half the night. I slept we’ll on my stomach but constantly woke up with numb arms so need to figure out a more comfortable position. We were up by 6:30am but it took us until 9:30am to ‘break camp’. I guess we can only become more efficient.

At lunch today I fuelled up on salami and cheese wraps but in my mission to rid myself of food I over consumed salami and found myself in a coma for a few hours until my stomach started crying out. The rest of the afternoon was hot and I just didn’t feel great in the gut. Also need to establish a balance of refuel Vs overload.

After being picked up tonight and taken to the Mount Laguna store by Dave tonight life became good again. We bought some beer and corn chips and found ourselves a cabin! My first real shower was so welcomed as was the laundry bucket where we cleansed a few socks and underwear.

I have a box waiting at the Post Office which doesn’t open until noon tomorrow. We’ve decided to take a Nero (near zero) day tomorrow to wait for the Post Office and to check out the gear store as I’ve already lost my headlamp and need warmer clothes. I’ll also want to visit the general store again as we were pretty overwhelmed with all the items we could have purchased tonight.

I woke up a little seedy this morning after making two new trail buddies at camp last night. One of which carried a bladder full of Wild Turkey, the rest speaks for itself. I started the trail on my own after a big group of 19 set off about 30 minutes prior. I ended up walking off in the wrong direction, almost earning me the name ‘other way’, but quickly turned back to find the actual trail head.

A boy named ‘Ketchup’ soon past me and then I picked up another hiker called ‘Legend’ for a little stretch. The rest of the day was just me and the beauty of the trail. I was walking through cloud for most of the day but the temperature was perfect, Sarah’s dad almost had heat stroke on their Day 1 back in 2004 so it’s a very different year.

I had gone about 10 miles by about 2pm and decided early on I wouldn’t make it to Lake Morena. I still had plenty of water and decided to stop 15 miles in at Hauser Creek. This is where I met Alan (Pac Man) and Luis (Roll Up) and where the fun began.

Alan was my trail angel this morning and brought me a much needed coffee in bed. We were up by 6am, I definitely could have slept for a few more hours. But we powered up the hill by 8am in the direction of Lake Morena. By the time we reached there I’d sweated out the Wild Turkey and was feeling a little more human.

We filled up water, repacked our bags and used a civilised toilet before heading on another 10 miles to our current location near Kitchen Creek. Pac Man and Roll Up only met up at the start of the trail so as three solo hikers we’ve formed a little group which made Day 2 a lot of fun.

My feet and back are in pretty good shape. My shoulder hurts a little but considering the miles we’ve gone I’m pretty happy. Nights here are COLD and my fingers are starting to turn numb. Until tomorrow…

More to come…