Miles: 14.7

Total Miles: 26

Ascent/Descent: 2307/2484 ft

Start Time: 7:50

End Time: 17:00

Temperature: 22 (72)

It was a chilly night and i felt like i had been awake all night but i know i must have slept as i felt quite rested. I woke at 6:30 and slowly packed up my things and made porridge. Andrew set of  first as he was ready before us and me and Christina left together at around 7:50. The views were incredible, saw more spring blooms, still couldn't believe how lush and Green the desert is this year. First few miles were cruisey and then we had the descent down to hauser creek, i was going a little quicker at this point so started hiking a bit ahead, saw Andrew at the creek and he said he had seen Robert so he wasn't far ahead. We then had a 1361ft ascent (415m) back up the other side, it was hot but not as bad as i was expecting. bumped into Andrew again at the top and chatted briefly to an older friendly American hiker called Joe. It was then just a few more miles to lake Morena. Just s i was coming down into lake Morena i stepped onto a rock slab and heard a huge hiss, there was a big grey snake right by my foot! my great was racing and i left forward out of the way, to shook up to go back for a photo. I headed to the store/cafe when I arrived excited for a cold drink. An free and R over were there along with lots of other hikers. 2 Aussies Amanda and Will, an (18 year old!) American Eavan, Belgium Mariette and lots of others. I enjoyed a nice cold can of watermelon juice, Christina showed up a little later, we headed to the campsite to use their toilets and charge our phones whilst we sat out there hottest part of the day. just after 2 i sweet of again, started with river but he soon shot ahead. then afternoon was pretty chilled, one incline and mostly flat after, padded various of the killers from the cafe throughout the afternoon pausing for quick chats. there were two water crossings north about shin deep, the cold water was nice and refreshing on the hot tired feet. A pretty bog group of us stopped at Boulder oaks campsite for the night, the camp host kindly informed us that there was a free spot for pct hikers so we didn't have to pay. we all set up our tents and sat around exchanging stories over dinner. Heading to bed around 7:30