I’m writing to you now as I take a 0 day (no hiking, a day off) in Julian, CA, which is 77 miles from the Mexican border. Overall, it’s been a pretty intense first week, make exceptional by the people Ive met along the way.
My first few days were a crash course in hiking the the heat. Daytime temperatures in the 80s with direct sun overhead was a big change from the Seattle weather I was accustomed to. The desert significantly rewards early starts, and every day during the heat wave I got up earlier, and enjoyed a few hours of cool temperatures and shade before the sun got above the ridge line. I typically tried to finish hiking by noon-1pm, putting in 10-14 miles.
The next few days were the polar opposite. As I climbed up into Mt. Laguna (6000 ft), the heat wave broke, and both day and nighttime temps came down. This would have been a welcome respite if not for the wind storm that came through at the same time. For 2 nights and the day between we hikers got rocked by 30 mph winds with gusts that made it hard to walk a straight line. On the second night, the wind intensified, with 40 mph sustained winds with gusts to 60-80 mph. Did I mention the only plants around were bushes maybe 4 feet tall?
I found a decent spot to pitch my tent the second night, but it was not enough. We got some rain, just enough to moisten the ground and rip out a tent stake, despite me putting large rocks on all my stakes. Everyone I talked with afterwards had some horror story about the night – Britt had her rain fly end up under her tent, several folks has stakes rip out multiple times during the night, and one couple I met, Charcoal and Struggles had tent issues and ended up bivying under their tent ground sheet.
The weather improved the next day, and when we made it to camp, and I fell asleep pretty early, tired after a long night with limited sleep.
On Wednesday, we made it to Julian, and I’m writing this in an AirBnB a few hikers and I rented. It’s been a fun first week, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next week has in store.
