May 1 Up Up and Away

We woke up in the clouds. Ooops and I were at 3500' and the clouds hung thickly around us. Our tents were wet, our sleeping bags damp. We were on the trail by 630 headed up up and away above the clouds. Soon we found ourselves looking down on what looked like snow covered mountains but were actually thick snow white clouds.










Ooops snapped this pic of me during one of our many breaks.
I took several great pics with my Nikon camera and will post them once Mark loads them.
We hiked a total of 22 miles, 16 uphill. No water during the entire stretch but I had a pint left at trail's end.
Shortly after this pic we entered the Sheep Fire burn area where we spent most of our time dodging the Poodle-dog bush.





This bush causes severe skin irritation similar but more severe than poison ivy. It is resistant to the usual remedies and is responsible for several hiker hospitalizations in 2011.
Our climb continued to 8200' with the clouds visible all day and the views spectacular. We met Kevin, a day-hiker who offered to shuttle us in to town from inspiration point. He gave us his cell number. We arrived at inspiration point later than we hoped but happy to have arranged a ride, unfortunately neither of us could get phone service. 20 minutes later we got a hitch from Mickey into town. Thanks Mickey! Unfortunately by then the Post Office and Hardware store were closed so we split the cost of a room at the hiker-friendly Pine Inn. We had a great dinner at the Grizzly and plan to zero here tomorrow since we still need to pick up packages and get an early start before climbing Mt Baden-Powell on Thursday.
Heart

Location:W Park Dr,Wrightwood,United States