Day 6 - Julian to some campsite

A view back towards Scissors Crossing.

Phew, today was a long day.
We started by having the continental breakfast at the lodge. I just had a danish and a slice of orange.
Then we went out to Mom's Pies, which offer thru hikers a free lunch. It was a bit early for lunch, but they made us the sandwiches and we got the drinks and the pie. We managed without the soup. We got it all to go.
Then was the long ordeal of hitching back to the trail. Took us well over an hour, until a very nice lady picked us up after dropping her son at the school. The live in the small town down by Scissors Crossing (where we had to pick up the trail). She told us that she often picks up hikers, both up to town and back to the trail.

A nice place to sit down and rest.

We finally set foot on the trail at 10:20 - way too late for such a long day. The trail ahead was mostly up and up, sprinkled with a lack of water sources, shade, or anyplace to have a nice rest.
Luckily, the "up" bit wasn't top bad. It was mostly graded, with long stretches of Ridge walking. We also got lucky with some clouds which hid the sun occasionally. With the infrequent wind, it was sometimes even pleasant.
The lack of water wasn't that bad, since we both started with 4 liters of water, so it was enough to get us over to the cache.

The view from the long climb up the mountainץ

Getting to the cache itself was fun, because I helped restock it just about a week ago. So when I recognized the trail leading to it I felt much better. I was also happy to finally sign the register, since last time around I felt like I shouldn't do it without actually getting there by foot.

Back at the scene of crime, near the 3rd Gate Cache.

During the day we leap frogged many other hikers struggling on their way up the trail. We met Micah at the cache, even though he managed to get a ride 40 minutes before we did, and some other hikers we haven't met lately. Everyone were pushing forward a bit, to make the next day into Warner Springs a bit easier.
We got out of there for some early evening hike. The sun was fully clouded by then, but I felt quite bear at that point. We managed another 3 miles or so, and now we are camped at pct mile 94.4.
Note to self: next time when I buy a dinner, I should make sure it's ready made, and only requires some quick heating. Currently I still have some unmade rice grains stuck in my teeth.