Ah, slept in this morning.

Got packed up and went to the bathroom. Normally I don't feel it necessary to write about this sort of thing....but here I was hunkered over doing my business. All of the sudden out of nowhere a fire helicopter appeared. I don't know if they saw me but I wrapped stuff up pretty quick.

Took a clock photo on a ridge and Ninja Trucker came by. He said he was having to hustle because his mom was bringing food to the fire station.

I decided that today was the day I listened to every Led Zeppelin album. I will post about that whole thing later on.

Got about four miles and hit the Station Fire detour. The trail was closed and you had to detour onto the road. The distance was about the same though.

While on the road I saw something off in the distance. It was multiple colors and moving towards me. Once I cleared the trees I saw that it was another hiker heading southbound carrying the largest backpack I've ever seen on someone. It looked a bit like the Grapes of Wrath jalopy on his back. I quickly got out both cameras and started cranking out photos as he passed me. He didn't say hello or anything. I did like his cutoffs though.

Got to the Mill Creek ranger station and saw a few hikers there. The ranger station was new and they had a whole covered area in the back.

As I was making my dinner for brunch, I saw Ninja Trucker walking up the road carrying a pizza box. He was taking some pizza to Turtle and Willow who had just left. NT's mom and him brought a cooler up to the station, it was full of fruit and root beer. What a nice treat.

I said goodbye to a few folks and mentioned my Led Zeppelin listening party I was having. "Houses of the Holy is up next", I said and they all laughed.

The trail climbed and dropped and climbed and dropped for the next several miles. The poodledog bush returned and I had to do the usual Indiana Jones maneuvering around it.

Got to Messenger Flat campground and saw the recent fire that had occurred there. This is the fire that Carolyn (who I had camped with before I-15) had told me about running away from.

Willow and Tortoise were there, soon Ninja Truck and Wendy showed up. I made dinner and debated about staying put vs walking. For my Led Zeppelin-a-thon, I still had to finish up In Through the Out Door and all of Coda. I decided to keep hiking.

As I walked up the trail I was slightly feeling like I should have just stayed put. About two seconds later I rounded a corner and saw an amazing sunset. I burned up a good half hour there taking photos.

I looked for saddles on the map and saw that in a couple miles there was a flat spot on top of a ridge. I got to a dirt road, walked up it and then spent a good 10 minutes looking for a spot to camp. Found one and had home for the night.