Once again slept very well. These quiet sites all to ourselves make a huge difference on whether or not we get a good night's rest I've noticed. The guy didn't smoke super late so it was fine. We roll out in the dark and the sunrise was so pretty. I think this section has been surprisingly beautiful, like everyday! I am impressed and stoked. And our campsites every night has been so good. That rarely happens out here.

I've noticed that ever since I started hiking w gb again, we are morphing our hiking styles together. He's down to wake up everyday at 4am to night hike a little and our lunches are now 1.5-2 hours. This has not happened to me since the desert times! We even take a mini nap haha. And throughout the day, we take a lot of other breaks. It feels more chill since I always feel like I'm in a rush when I hike alone. And we also don't hike together which is nice. So far I've been happy to partner back up again with him. Going to find a camp after the long day is not as sad anymore.

For lunch today, I hiked a bit further to find a good flat spot since everything was ridgy before that. I found ohm there and chatted a bit. I like him too, I would like to be his friend. I've noticed all the guys who hike solo have been super chill and easy to talk to. I also want to be friends w Boy Scout. Gb came shortly and we took a somewhat long lunch. I guess it's the norm now, still getting used to it. We talked about some etna plans and decided we really need rest. Get all the errands done first and take the rest of the day to do nothing. Not even socialize, we decided we will not talk to each other haha. I read him some excerpts from my blog and laughed. It's always hilarious reading them out loud. I need to add more comic relief in every entry but it's so hard when you're tired.

Entered into the Russian wilderness. So gloomy and beautiful.

We saw a mama deer and baby on the way to camp!

Today's sky was especially nice bc we had clouds! That is a rare sighting in California. It made some of the exposed climbs a little better. Since we don't have to wake up normal time tomorrow, we took multiple breaks again. We were ridge walking for awhile and I had to poop really bad but there was nowhere to go. It's the worst feeling. So I ended up having to just go on the side of the trail. We entered the Russian wilderness and it was gorgeous. There were lots of burned trees but it made it look so cool with the dark clouds. Soon we reached an area with a bunch of burned down trees. It looked so crazy! And it started to sprinkle a bit. Once we got over the top, there was an amazing view. And it was all the way down.

Dark clouds started rolling into the burned section.

We camp at paynes lake and arrive pretty late. We set up and do our own dinners and call it a night. Boy Scout also rolled in. Always so happy to see him. My food sucks so bad now. I didn't even eat my dinner. Tomorrow's wake up time is 5am. We want to get to the road at a decent time to get a hitch. I cannot wait for shower and laundry.