Start: 0730 - Camp Glenwood
End: 1900 - PCT mile 424.5
Miles (today): 23.5
Miles (cumulative): 439.5 (356 PCT, 76.5 alternate, 7 off)

Poodle dog bush scares me - apparently the rash it causes is much much worse then poison ivy or poison oak.  Pictures of this dreaded plant are everywhere; however, all the pictures show it in full bloom.  Unfortunately, it doesn't bloom until June... So I've been avoiding all sorts of plants that even remotely resemble the description of poodle dog thinking the slightest brush up against any one of them could end my hike. 

This morning I had a bit of a bathroom emergency about an hour or so after we started.  Happily, I saw some huge rocks up ahead that were positioned perfectly to give me good cover. I hastily jumped over the rocks and maneuvered my way into position.  Suddenly I notice this smell - sort-of like pot - and only then did I take a closer look at the plants around me.  They looked suspiciously like the description of poodle dog (minus the flowers of course) and I heard they have a pot-like odor...

I don't think I actually touched one of them, but in my haste (it was a bathroom emergency!) I very well could have.  I did my best to rinse off/wipe off any part of my body that could have come into contact with that devil plant and now I suppose only time will tell.  

After my little poodle dog bush scare I walked and talked with Kevin/Special K for a while.  He thanked me for showing him the achilles stretching/strengthening exercises when I met him in Idyllwild - he said they definitely helped him recover and get back on the trail (yay!).  We talked so much that we led each other off-trail - by the time we realized something was amiss we were 500 feet away. Oops! I had to use the Halfmile app again to get us back on track.  We stopped talking after that and he pulled ahead. :)

A little later, I passed him on the trail.  He told me he was listening to the Breakfast Club soundtrack, which of course got the movie and the song stuck in my head for a while.  I actually laughed to myself when I thought about my favorite part of the whole movie: the principal is trying to prop open the library doors and Judd Nelson's character says something like, "what if there's a fire?".  The expression on his face at that moment is hilarious (my best friend in 8th grade and I would watch that part over and over and over and laugh until our sides hurt - here's to you, Heather!)

Special K passed me a while later (this is how it goes sometimes on the trail - you leapfrog people constantly) and told me he was now listening to Candlebox, so of course that album got stuck in my brain.  Maybe I SHOULD listen to music every once in a while out here.  I don't know, though - I'm still really enjoying the peaceful sounds of nature.

We walked through quite a few burn areas today.  There was a certain beauty about some of the stretches and at one point it felt like I was walking in a cemetery.  There was a quiet stillness about the whole place and if I had someone to talk to I would have done so in a whisper.  It was as if the burned trees were tombstones - stoic tributes to what once was.

We also encountered trail magic today!  Two section hikers  going southbound - Goaltech and Tooth Fairy - are giving all the northbound hikers some love (a choice of chips, coffee packets, or nibs). It was so awesome!  Goaltech and I even have the same gaiters. :)

Along the trail: