Miles: 22.5 

Total Trail Miles: 508.1 

Ascent/Descent: 4948/3241 ft 

Start Time: 06:40 

End Time: 17:43 

Temperature: 25°C (77°F)

I had slept pretty well and wasn't cold without the flysheet but when we woke everything was covered in condensation as we were so close to the river. We went straight into a big climb this morning, luckily we could get it out of the way before the sun got hot, I could feel my shins and foot a little bit but nothing too bad. We took our mid morning break by a stream, water was going to be more scarce today so we had to fill up a few litres each time. We planned to take lunch just before the 500 mile point so we could all cross it together. When we had done the majority of the days climb we popped out at the top into a pretty dystopian feeling terrain - burnt trees and a lot of poisoness poodle dog bush. So there was lots of dodging of pdb involved. Me, Shortcut and Beer Slide ended up group hiking for a while which was nice as we don't do it too often, we discussed the eta gear we would need for the Sierra. We dried out things out over lunch, discussed for far we had come and talked again about the looming sierra trying to convince Ghost to join us. E ended up taking another pretty long break at the 500 mile marker to take photos and videos with the proclaimers playing. After we had 8 more miles to the campsite and unfortunately another chunk of uphill, this time at the top we were in a lush green grassy area scattered with trees and it felt a little bit like home. The climb in the heat was hard and i was tired by the end of the day, we didn't rock into camp until almost 6 so quickly set up and got cooking. Another group of 4 were at the campsite so we are on the big picnic bench with them and the two guys joined us for a game of cards after. Another night of sleeping without the rain fly, hopefully there is less condensation tonight.