Day 2: April 14th

After having a wonderfully restful sleep between hearing people walking through the bushes a mere ten feet away from us, a baby crying in the early morning, and the aforementioned Border Patrol helicopters we couldn't wait to make the 1000ft. elevation (oh and that's in half a mile!) climb straight up a mountain the remaining four miles to Lake Morena. We needed water and food, we couldn't eat dinner the night before because we couldn't spare the water for the stove, and a break by the time we walked into the Lake Morena campground. You can see my restful nap

here having been so relieved to be past the "illegals" I was so glad to soon be talking to another camper who informed me that really I should be careful of them until we reach the highway in another few days...awesome, welcome back upset stomach and restless night of sleep!
We ended up only doing a ten mile hiking day on day two because we had hardly slept and were so tired from the day before. Being so anxious about being murdered in my sleep I made a deal with Alex that we would camp at Boulder Oaks Campground (ten miles total) as long as other people were there, and if no one was there we would walk the extra four miles to Cibbets Flat Campground where we were told by the only other hiker we had seen the whole day (Pie) that Stinky Butt was sleeping that night. You might be able to imagine my expression when we got to Boulder Oaks, it was almost dark again, and not only were there no other campers but the campground was chained from the roadside so that no one else could get in, or hear your screams in the night. There was a thick fog rolling along the ground and there were what appeared to be huge rusty cages, yes cages, that were set at every camping spot. The cages were actually encloseures for people that bring along their horses, but that didn't diminish the horror movie like appearance in my mind.
Alex and I huddled around the picnic table and ate our 99cent store refried beans (and they were actually really good!) in the cold. When Alex went to go fill our water bladders I set up our beds. I was suddenly frozen in place when I heard a clear woman's voice say "Woo-hoo!" I was SO elated that some other hikers must have been so pleased to have made it to the camping spot that they actually shouted out with glee. I excitedly told Alex and he went jogging around the campsite looking for the other hikers to invite them to come sleep by us. Sadly, he couldn't find anyone and we assumed that it was just voices carrying again. We slept very well that night and I was surprised to wake in the early morning light to hear more women saying "woo-hoo" in tandem...oh wait, those are only birds...