“Hello! I am back on the trail after a long and lovely and hectic Memorial Day weekend spent at BayCon [www.baycon.org], and I will update about that later, or Kady can update about that more specifically and should point a link there from my journal.
Be that as it may. As I said, I am back on the trail, and I am calling from the trail tracks just west of Interstate 15 [in El Cajon Pass]. I got out here, it was a pretty hot afternoon, and there was a train stopped on the tracks, actually. And I have been trying for a while -- it sounds juvenile, yes, but -- to put some coins on the tracks and get them flattened as trail souvenirs. So, I sat down and waited for a while, and eventually managed to do so -- another train came by first, actually, and I had that train flatten two quarters, so I got the souvenirs that I wanted.
But then as I was packing up, the train that had been stopped began to move. And, let me tell you, nothing says Trail Magic on a nice, hot, dry day -- your first day back out to the trail, with a pack twice as heavy as you're used to, because you're just staggering out of the weight of the food and water for a long 22-mile uphill stretch with no water along the way -- and nothing says Trail Magic like having the engineer shout at you through the window and chuck a few bottles of water at you.
So I just chugged those down. I was carrying so damn much water that it didn't actually [help] -- I can't say it was a lifesaver or anything, but, boy, was that a feel-good little welcome back to the trail.
And now it's time to get back to the slogging. I have another five miles or so to cover tonight, and then tomorrow's going to be a full day of uphill. I'm not looking forward to the walking. I'm especially not looking forward to the walking after as long a break from the trail as I've had. But, it's here, it's in front of me, I've gotta do it, and it's about time to get it done.
I will keep trying to check in at various intervals -- I've been falling behind on my journaling a little bit; I had kind of hoped to do more at BayCon -- but hopefully my adventures will continue. So, talk to you all soon.”
baxil