El Cajon
I'm at El Cajon pass, mile 344 (according to my old 2004 data book, which is where all my data comes from.) I didn't like the hot low (3,000' to 4000') stuff today, but it went fast--I did 35 by 7 and have been in town for a while. I was kind of thinking of hitching to Agua Dulce, because I think there are several sections of trail not worth repeating between here and Kennedy Meadows, but the San Gabes coming up are actually pretty cool (except for the climb to get into them, and then the drop out of them into Agua Dulce). I'm too tired to think straight. I doubt my plan B (walking to Berkeley) will work, because (a)I don't think there's that much room to make stuff up between here and Kennedy Meadows, and (b) I've already done the Western States 100 course, which is a lot of fire road, then Auburn to Sacto and Sacto to the bay would be a lot of pavement, which doesn't seem appealing. Who knows. Maybe I'll end up in New Zealand or Iceland. Maybe I'll do Canada's Great Divide Trail. What's it like in NZ in winter? Anyway, as long as I don't pay rent for June and July, I will have succeed in my mind. I felt for a minute today that I had found a pet stray dog. That would've been cool, but it ran away. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
It was mostly cold and wet in NZL in their Winter. Matt J and I did some hiking and sea kayaking down there in July/August one year during college. The only problem I'd foresee is that the days are very short. You'd have less than 10 hrs, probably more like 8 hours w/ rain, of daylight on some of the the hikes you'd want to do (but with a headlamp...) that being said, the hiking is amazing. Some of the best I've ever seen, but you've seen a lot more trails than I have, so I don't know really how it compares to the states. To me, in parts it was fairly similar to the Olympic Mountain Range with the lushness and volcanoes. But there's glaciers. And no snakes. Lots of birds. No snakes.
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