Almost Scissors Crossing

Today was a good day. Hiked long and hard and avoided a pissed off rattle snake that had bite on its mind.

Started slow as I was headed down hill most of the morning. Steep descents are as bad as steep ascents. After about 90 minutes dropping almost 2000 feet it was time to climb. Regained about 1100 feet and then strolled along on slow rolling trail.

Made it to Rodrigues Spur and filled up on water. Spend a couple hours eating, relaxing and tending to the blisters on my feet. This has become a full time job.

The fettle snake encounter scared the hell out of me. I'm lumbering along daydreaming of ice cream when I hear the loudest rattle from a snake I have ever heard. I look up and 10 feet in front of me square on the trail is a coiled rattle snake. I stop and he lunges at me. His strike misses by about two feet and he begins to coil as his head raises and cocks as if he is going to strike again. The rattle never stopped. He holds as I quickly (holy cow I didn't think this fat, tired, old man could move that fast) jump back. He holds his ground for about two minutes (I thought at the time an hour) then moves off the trail. By the time I got my heart slowed down and I grabbed for my camera, he was gone. I could do without those encounters.

I started hiking again in hopes of doing another 4 miles to make it closer to Scissors Crossing. Want to be there by noon tomorrow and get a jump on the miles between there and Warner Springs. I did just over 5 so only have about 4 left in the morning.

The weather turned cold and windy with clouds moving in quickly. I was racing to get to flat land so I could find a tent spot before the sun set. I came around a bend in the trail and there were two tents off to the side that looked familiar. They belonged to a father-daughter from Sacramento I met several days back. There was room for my tent and I pitched it quickly in the howling wind and climbed inside. I was soaked from sweat and needed to get warm and dry. I changed clothes, got warm and made my dinner (Cup a soup) and started writing this post.

The wind is dieing off a bit and I am getting sleepy. It is after all 8:15. Until next time; enjoy the little things in life; big things are too heavy to carry out here.