Mile 21 – Rain Snow Rain Delay

Sitting inside a pavilion with a dozen other hikers, we have been playing cards, telling stories, and patiently waiting out the storm. We were told of the storm warning yesterday but were so antsy to get hiking after taking yesterday to get a new iPhone. So this morning we woke at 6am and had hope that last night brought the worst of it. We ate our granola and made our way to visit Meadow Ed and eat some pancakes (we weren’t the only ones – about 8 of us were huddled under the easy-up). When a window presented itself, we set out bundled in our rain gear. A patch of blue sky was showing but within moments (about 3/4 of a mile) we found ourselves in a sleet/hail storm. We turned to each other and decided that this was a test of our patience, and we should hang out with the others instead of baring the elements and heading up in elevation. The high today was about 44, we have had wind gusts up to 30mph, and the longest stretch of sun lasted about 8 minutes.

It became obvious we made the better decision, we were only planning to walk about 6 miles and get picked up, but the reports we heard said that snow was plenty and winds were worse up on Mt. Laguna. We continue to enjoy the company and conversation, the latest gentleman we were chatting with invented the padded hip-belt 50 years ago!
So hopefully the storm breaks and we log a few miles and get rolling tomorrow, but until then we continue to smile and enjoy.