Woke up to find strong winds buffeting the tent. Good job I secured four guy lines last night. I didn’t fancy breakfast in the conditions so packed my sack inside and then engaged in the tricky act of taking a tent down when all it wanted to do was become a big sail and disappear over the horizon. Hiked another 8 miles to the trailhead, passed the 100 mile mark

then another couple off-trail to Montain Valley Retreat. Chery and Steve looked after me very well. They even supply robes, knowing that most through-hikers don’t have spare clothes! So I am now clean, and as a bonus was invited to a ‘kind’ rodeo at Silver Horse Retreat. Here they dance with horses rather than ride untamed ones.

Tomorrow I’ll get a lift back to the trailhead and walk the eight miles to the Warner Springs Community Resource Centre where I’ll resupply for the section to Idyllwild – 5 or 6 days – though there is Paradise Café on the way. The next blog post may be a while based on signal availability.