Trout Farm, cont.

It is Friday, May 22 (Day 18) at about 1 pm and I'm still at the trout farm. I'm only at about 2500' so the heat is very oppressive, even with the wind. Yesterday's hike really took a lot out of me and I've been using today to recover as much as I can. I'm parked under a shade tree and letting the breeze air out all my equipment while I wait for 4 pm to roll around. Any earlier than that I'll be fighting the heat of the day again.

This is the most boring day ever. I wish I had something to read or a deck of cards to play solitaire or my journal, but I don't even have a pen because I put everything I wouldn't need during the climb to Idyllwild in the bounce box. So basically it feels like I'm watching paint dry while I force myself to drink as much water as I can. And a person can only check his equipment or read the trail guidebook so many times! I wish that the group of three hikers behind me were here so that I could at least have some social interaction. But I have no idea where they are. I left them two days ago during the descent from Mt San Jacinto that took forever. I hope they didn't get in trouble on the section leading to here that was so dry and hot.

I think the massive size of this trail is beginning to set in. I won't even be 10% of the way done (Big Bear City) with the trail until Day 20 at the earliest. Really I just want to be done with the Southern California section. The heat as well as the distance between water sources is ridiculous!

But once I complete SoCal, then I move on to the difficulties of Central California and the Sierras. Then I'll be hiking at a higher altitude with more gear. But the scenery should more than make up for it!