2:45am: beep Beep BEEP. Meeting hiking buddy to position one car at the tram station. What, gates closed??? Ok, heading to the C2C Trail head. Headlamp foto and then setting foot on the C2C close to 4am.
Pretty soon, we are rewarding the steep uphill with amazing night views of Palm Spring. Did not see my hiking buddy in the past 6 month, so we are talking a lot, while hiking uphill…errr…ok, I am falling behind anyways and after an hour I DEFINITIVELY feel my legs and force myself to slow down a bit, but the view is breathtaking. Making good progress and we so excited once we reach the worlds most famos pile of rocks that we are heading down the wrong trail. Oh no, we soon realize, but have to hike back up again, wasn’t more that 1/4 Mile, oh well.
Starting to feel nausea, no surprise here. Slowing down a bit more and planning a decent rest at sun-up.
Sun-up, was breathtaking, snacking got rid of the nausea, YES. So I basically fell into this old trap again, confusing hunger with nausea, duhhh!!!
Passing a group of 20 hikers after not having seen anyone feels weird. Most of them do not respond to a friendly ‘good morning’???? Manners hikers, where are your manners!
![Wink ;-)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Even though there is daylight, I am loosing the trail several times. Sometimes completely, because I start to develop Trail-brain and probably also because of the overgrown manzanitas. I have every intend to stay on the main trail, but it is sometimes hard to figure that out.
Reaching the snow where steepest part of the trail begins, but the snow is soft and there is no ice underneath. Making good progress, but definitively slowed down. Off the trail, climbing straight up the shoot by following someone else’s footprints and here I am, round valley.
Realizing I drank less than I should - 1.5L. So I am downing 1L while I wait for my buddy. Other hikers roll in and report my hiking buddy is cramping and they are throwing salt tablets and other home grown mitigation measures at him. The hiking community is great, everyone helps each other. After an hour, he arrives and we are resting a bit to see if he can keep going. While I pull the permit and refill bottles in the restroom, yikes, that water tastes awful.
We are trying but my buddy turns around and heads down the hill.
The long rest didn’t help, I am cold and glad I to back on the trail, making good progress in slush up the mountain. Reaching the top and enjoying great vistas. Definitively better views than the couple of times I have been up here before. Catalina island and the one behind it, the coastline and all the distant mountain peaks.
What a great day.
A trail runner sharing plans to do c2c2c and I feel inspired, but it turns out I dropped my headlamp on the way up and it has not been turned in at lost&found at the gondola, no headlamp to purchase either. Oh well, what a great day. So rewarding, feeling so alive!
Congrats to my hiking buddy’s upcoming wedding!
Happy Trails,
Rick
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