Drought Buster and Squish Squish

Day 3

Mile 41.5 to 61.5

Up/down - 2200/3400

Bird List

I don't want the trail name of Drought Buster but it's inevitable. It rained almost all day again. The hiker trash crew that we slumber partied with last night voted on Susan's trail name this morning- it's Squish Squish, for the sound her feet make when she walks in the rain with me. Okay, that's done...

We left Mt Laguna after sitting in front of the closed forest service visitor center, making coffee and hot chocolate out of the rain. The first 10 miles were a traverse of the ridge of the Laguna mountains. I'm sure it would have had some amazing views to the east if we could have seen anything beyond 100 feet... And who did we see at mile 5 and 10? If you guess Rob and his trail magic wagon you would be right! That's three days in a row. Rob said his dad was going to call it quits at 10 miles today and we went 20. I fear we've seen the last of them. It sure was nice and we can't thank Rob enough. 

We had to switch from hands-free umbrella mode to ponchos today with the stiff wind on the ridges. It pays to be prepared. 

The afternoon finally got us some views down the ridge toward Anza Borrego State Park thousands of feet below. We're dropping altitude now as we descend to Scissors Crossing near Julian. Tonight were camped in a gorgeous meadow at about 4500 feet and the rain has stopped long enough to get camp and dinner done. More rain expected for the next two days- but what else would you expect? The plus side is that our water carries between distant sources have been easy in the cool weather. 

The bird lists today were similar so I'm only including one this time. It's kind of a pain to move them from Susan's account to the blog, especially with marginal cell signal. The one I am including had several juicy birds from a feeder in Mt Laguna, new San Diego county bird including Purple and Cassin's Finches, Pine Siskin, and Pygmy Nuthatches. That makes 13 new ones so far.