October 27

It was too warm last night to seal myself up in my sleeping bag in order to hide from the mosquito that was hanging around. It's a little hard to believe that the little monsters are still around considering it is almost November in the desert. Once we started hiking today, however, we realized how insignificant a few mosquito bites are compared to the threat of Poodle Dog Bush. The plant was everywhere on the trail and we all spent the day dodging the nasty stuff. I started calling our dance moves the "Poodle Dog Shuffle". I Watched the other hikers do amazing things to avoid the bush. We did advance through a section that was completely overgrown with the plant and totally unavoidable. There were bushes between 6 and 8 feet tall and all bowed over the trail. These were easier to avoid than the little ankle high plants thriving in the shade below, and I am sure I contacted the plant a few times with my skin. Fortunately a fire station was only 6 miles down the trail from that section and we all took turns scrubbing down with soap and water, and even rinsing the clothes we wore through the poison. It generally takes two weeks for the rash to manifest so we will see if that washing was effective or not. We met up with Bobcat at the fire station and Nat, Jane and I hiked with him for the rest of the day. We four are camped at a site, all with tents erect in anticipation of forecasted weather. It sounds like we might get to hike through snow again after all with Mt. Baden Powell in the schedule for the day after tomorrow at 9,400 ft., and snow forecasted for that day.