Back at Cajon Pass

I ended up going to San Diego and the VA Hospital doesn't do dental so they gave me some amoxicillin and told me to go find a dentist. I'm not sure when I'm going to have time to do it but at least it'll take care of the abcess in the meantime. The gig at Big Bear was great but there wasn't a ton of attendance because the Hostel was closed to hikers for the weekend so basically it was just people I already knew from Big bear and guests of the hotel. Craig let me crash at the resort. I dropped in on my old stomping grounds and Murray's. The next night I had a gig in Newport Beach which was cold as hell, we were outside on a hilltop and the fog came in. It sucked pretty bad. That night I was going to go up and drop my car at a hiker hostel called the Saufley's in Agua Dulce but I decided to detour out to Vegas and spend the night with Laura before I get back on the trail. It'll be a while before I get to see her again.

The next day I drove out to The Saufley's and stayed there. I slept in one of their tents and the next morning I found a cool hiker named Blaze who was willing to do the shuttle thing with me. He and I drove out to the REI in Rancho Cucuamonga to see if they had a pair of shoes for him. Then we went to a Henry's and a Ralph's to pick up supplies. At Cajon Pass there is a MacDonalds and we had some burgers. I met a guy named Soft Walker who apparently hikes barefoot a lot. I bid my car and Blaze adieu and used the bathroom and then got on the trail, planning to hike a few miles in the dark. It was looking like rain and I was really not looking forward to a climb up in rain and possibly snow but I really needed to get back on the trail.

Soft Walker was ahead of me and I had to turn my headlamp on to go under the bridge of the I-15. it was a little strange doing that in the dark, wondering what was under here and there was some running water that turned into a regular stream. I had some difficulty not stepping in the water in the dark but once I was out from under the bridge and re-found the trail, I was able to hike with my headlamp off. I hadn't intended to get all the way to the first campsite at 5 miles but somehow I managed to get there... around midnight. I found a bunch of tents on the side of the trail and just pitched my tent in some low bushes because I thought it was the campsite I had been looking for. It wasn't. It was close though, just about a 1/4 mile away. I have been experiencing some gastrointestinal abnormalities lately and I'm hoping it's not Giardia which is one of the reasons why people treat water. It comes from Raccoon Feces and it's like Montezuma's revenge on steroids. It takes about 7 days to ferment in your body before symptoms show up and I had some untreated water about a week ago so... I just hope that it's not a problem. I guess we'll see.

David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
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