The morning was beautiful. Our camp was miserable last night when we got in the tent but it’s amazing this morning. Our tent is dry and it’s beautiful.

The morning was sunny and pretty. We kept on the ridge and the walking was easy. Lil Flier napped in the carrier as I carried her on the ridge with beautiful views, trees and birds singing. She’s so lucky.

We stopped for a break at a trail junction and found maybe some old trail magic. Some cans of pop (one was busted open), water bottles, Powerade and a running gel. We took a pop, Powerade and the running gel. We moved the rest to a more visible spot. Then we kept going.

Secret was super into the views today. We had some fun conversations while we hiked.

At some point I slipped and bailed while carrying Lil Flier and since I put my arm under her head and body to protect her I got some road rash on my arm from a boulder. She’s fine. She was just pissed I woke her up. Then she fell back asleep. But my arm is pretty raw.

We stopped for lunch at Little Jimmy Campsite. Our break was too long. A group (scouts?) came. We used the toilet. We did diaper laundry. We used tables to eat and I had a cider I brought from town hoping to drink at the summit of Braden Powell but didn’t (it was 4pm and lightly snowing yesterday on the summit). We also drank the coke. Natasha cleaned and put gauze on my arm.

We left and once we got into the burn finally saw some poodle dog. Some people keep reporting poodle dog on trail since Campo but I have not seen any yet. Today we saw a LOT of it. And it looks like the photos online.

Poodle Dog isn’t magic. But it looks interesting and distinctive and is kind of like Poison Oak.

Then we caught trail magic at the trail head and Natasha got a beer. I charged my phone for a bit.

Heading out Secret struggled with the transition and grabbed at a trekking pole and hit me. Neither of us meant to but the pole kind of flung off the trail and landed right next to Poodle Dog. Fuck.

We then climbed again and camped on the ridge. It’s a nice spot but not flat. We use our food bags along the perimeter to keep us from sliding too far but today I’m not sure if they will work. It’ll be a rough sleep.

We ate dinner and I realized the food had walnuts in it. I developed an allergy to walnuts 5-10 years ago. It’s not terrible but I get an itchy mouth. Hopefully this doesn’t have enough in it for a reaction.

Right before bedtime stories I got a headache.

It sounds like I had a bad day but overall I’m feeling good. And I read stories to Secret and it was nice. He gave me a bunch of kisses and told me he was “giving me the special” (we sometimes show each other we love each other when someone isn’t feeling special). It made me happy and now I’m laying in the tent with the tent wall touching my head as I slide backwards and actually feeling good about myself.