Because of a fire, the Pacific Crest Trail was closed for a section. In order to continue with the mission of "Walking All the Way From Mexico to Canada"TM I took a road detour and ended up hiking 26.2 miles that day. Thankfully I took two "zero" days after that to recover. Not fun to walk with a pack on when your feet feel like bloody hamburger.


At least the walk on the road was full of nice views like this of a yucca type plan beginning to sprout an inflorescence.


In Idyllwild I got some cosmic backing that Bobcat was the right trail name, in the form of an actual bobcat at the ranger station's exhibit


Temporary grinding? Well heck, we want to grind ALL the time! Thanks to Kingfisher, our Peace Corps Ecuador friend for making this photo possible, and for driving us to the Paradise Cafe to eat those San Jose burgers. Wow.


I'd say that 70% of the wildlife that appears to hikers on the trail comes in the form of these lizards. They come in tons of different models and fashions and there's a size to fit every wardrobe and budget. The Chuffmate took this awesome photo since my BO is so bad that the critters won't let me get so close.