Vincent Gap...Oh, snap!

FINALLY...an overnight hike has been accomplished!!! (pat on the back)
My friend, Andrew, included me in a Facebook invite for a last minute overnight adventure in the Angeles Crest Mountains. Naturally, I invited Dominic. The plan was to meet Andrew and his 2 other friends at Vincent Gap parking lot around 11am and hike to the campsite together. Dominic and I drove my car (which is a p.o.s.) and about an hour into our drive, it began to overheat. It was pretty bad. We ended up turning around, driving back to Dom's and switching cars. It was definitely not the way we wanted to start this trip, but when life gives you lemons, make lemonade :) Can you believe we saw one patch of snow on the way there? It's not even cold out. Weird.

We found the lot AND a piece of paper posted (by Andrew) up on the trailhead marker with MISTY written in big letters, along with instructions on how to get to the campsite. He even said they would leave arrows along the trail to help direct us. SWEET! Neither Dom nor I have ever hiked this trail. The arrows were very helpful and reassuring. We began our hike around 2:30pm and stopped about an hour into it for some lunch.

I think I was carrying about 40lbs in my pack, Dom had maybe 55lbs in his. Our trekking poles were EXTREMELY beneficial. They helped keep our balance over rocky, narrow, steep terrain. I didn't think that mosquitos would be a problem, but I was WRONG. Because I wore shorts and a tank top (due to the warm weather) I came home with 45 bites! I'm still scratching. Those suckers even got me through my top! I've got some on my back and one on my tummy.

We LOVE this freeze dried meal, Chili Mac with Beef :) MMmmmm...just add boiling water!

Roxy, showing us the way through the creek.

After about 4 1/2 miles of the HARDEST hiking Dom and I have ever done (mind you, we were told that this was a super EASY hike), we found the rest of our group camped out HERE.

How cool is it to come upon an old plane crash. I guess people over the years had written dates on the plane, and the earliest date our friends found was in the 70s. I want to look up any old news on this crash, to see if I can find out what the heck happened.

This isn't the actual campsite that we intended on hiking to, but Andrew & friends said they tried reaching it, but it's unreachable. This hike is not maintained at all, and at times we had trouble locating the trail. Dom and I even went the wrong way for a bit before running into 2 other hikers who did the same and were heading back to find the trail. This spot did just fine, and no one else was around.

Dom's making us dinner...which I think was something like BBQ chicken bits and gravy over mashed potatoes. It wasn't bad at all...and for dessert we had some sort of Mocha Mousse Pie...amazing!

After many swigs of Whiskey and a few beers, Andrew was demonstrating some sort of joke on Peter, the punchline being a swift knee to the groin! Aw man, he hit him right on target and Peter went DOWN! It was soooo funny, and Andrew didn't mean to get him too hard. Peter didn't get up for a while..moaning in pain.

The Polaks (Andrew & Co.) stayed up later than us, singing loudly along to Polish songs (funny). The next morning, we basically got ready as soon as we were up. The others left about 30 minutes before us. The hike back to civilization...was INSANE! It was all uphill, and it was hot. The bugs were everywhere (I wore pants this time) and we were still sore from the day before. Our legs were killing! We had to climb over a bunch of rocks and large trees that had fallen onto the trail. I thought we'd never get there. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get back, and we had to stop numerous times to catch our breath. We did spot a rattlesnake, coiled up on the edge of the path, waiting to attack. Once we finally reached the car, we were soaked with sweat, hungry and pretty pleased with ourselves for finally taking on this challenge.

That night and the next day, I could barely move. My calves were the most sore (which never happens to me) and my lower back and thighs hurt, too. More tough hikes during the week are definitely needed for better strength training for something like this.
Gooooo us!!!