May 2nd 2022, 6:09 pm

Holy moly! What a day. We did a strong 15.4 miles to Haiser Creek where 14 of us have set up camp for the night. My body feels properly sore, everywhere, but probably nothing compared to what's coming tomorrow. Maybe I'll need to lighten my pack. I didnt care to do a final weigh in of the pack but my internal scale reads heavy. I guess I can get rid of some food. Though laying down now I'm quite comfortable. Or is that called exhaustion? Anyway there are quite a few who too are new to this and are also carrying possibly too much weight. We'll figure this out. Word is that tomorrows climb to Lake Morena will be the first true test. It's incredible and surreal to be on trail. Throughout the day I kept finding myself humored by the absurdity of this. I'm excited.

Already strong elements of community are present. Exhausted we ate dinner together, each a different delicacy. Myself I ate left over oat gruel, and a protein shake. Excusable since David and I did a post hike workout (15 pull-ups and 90 push-ups), because gains. While the sun set over the cliffs we climb tomorrow, the group of us engaged in easy conversation and laughs. Most of us are cowboy camping but a few have decided to pitch a tent to protect against the bugs.

During the roughly 10 hours of hiking I had nearly a million thoughts yet I'm afraid these entries are going to consist of mostly a crude summary of the days activities. However throughout the day I'm going to jot down some thoughts and include them unfiltered below.

Thoughts

• Social media did little to no justice to the trail.

• So much sweat.

• Remember Yosef, you are doing this because you want to. How many things in life do you do because you need to, regardless of its difficulty. This here is an opportunity to exercise the greatest physical and mental challenge of your life. The fact that it is by choice is a testiment of free will.