Week 3: Go Up To Go Down

Began this week by summiting San Jacinto for sunrise. Brrrrr. As always I do love a good sunrise summit :) this week has been brutal because I left my tramily (thru-hike lingo: trail family). I hiked with a few others at first, then by myself, and then with a group of 6 or so. The varying number of companions has been quite enjoyable actually; sad to leave some friends behind but cool to meet more people and hike at different speeds. Perhaps I will see them further down the trail. Pushed mileage a bit more and somehow did roughly 130 miles. This chunk included an area where many hikers fell ill, the cause was unknown (theorized to be norovirus or algae), either way there haven't been many cases recently. I had a couple of longer mile days to avoid the "dangerous" sections which worked for me. Not sick!!! Some other great things this week was that I saw my first baby rattlesnake of the trail and got some good views at different points. This week had a lot of ascents and descents (20,000 up and 25,000 down roughly) and a decent mental rollercoaster too. Doing well overall and feeling stoked for what's to come.