We packed up this morning and headed to the house for pancakes and coffee before heading back to the trail. Because so many hikers stay at Hiker Heaven and Casa de Luna, there is a bit of a bottleneck and the trail today was as crowded as we’ve seen it since the first day or two. The morning was a bit monotonous – warm, exposed, burned. The afternoon got better as we headed under a canopy of oak and pine. We stopped after 20 miles at the Sawmill Campground, a “front country” campground. We enjoyed the picnic tables and the fire ring, having our first real campfire of the trip (they are mostly prohibited in SoCal for good reason). Sadly the water source was still another half mile uphill from camp. Tomorrow we are headed down to the edge of the Mojave desert.
