Day 25 - cooper canyon camp to mill creek fire station

April 21 | Miles 395.2 - 418.6

We slept in a little this morning to recover from our snowy escapades.

The day began with a small but enjoyable climb. Before long we had arrived at the 400 mile mark and posed for a cheesy pic.

The day’s walk was pretty uneventful–a long gradual uphill through a dry, burned forest.

Today being Easter, I was feeling especially grateful for everything. For the fact that I have the chance to be doing this, for what the experience has become beyond a solo hike.

Once we had hit our max elevation for the day, we had some fun with it. Some of the guys ran down the mountain all the way to camp. I skipped along at a leisurely pace and enjoyed the panoramic views of the desert and surrounding mountains, all a little misty looking.

We finished out at a fire station, where we cowboy camped on a little dirt clearing with a nice vista (and highway overlook that offered views of crazy California motorists racing each other across the double yellow line around blind corners).

I offered to go get the guys water from a spigot on top of a hill a ways off and when I returned they got some flack from the other campers for having made the girl do it, which I found pretty funny. But that earned me a nice little shot of whiskey from one of our neighbors, and after my dinner of instant garlic mashed potatoes I fell asleep before the soft orange sunset.