Day 38: Good Morning!

(Mile 440 to Tehachapi, 558.5 = 18.5 miles)

Morning moon over camp.

I will start by saying that I love early mornings just as much as I hate waking up.  And I really do not like waking up.  Not at 6:30 a.m. for work and certainly not at 5:00 a.m. to hop out of a toasty Ruby into the all too brisk air for a hike.  I am, by nature, a night owl.  And I wake up not like a fluffy bunny rabbit, but more like the rabid wolverine.  Okay, I exaggerate.  But not by much -- I establish no-talking-and-definitely-no-questions rules with all of my roommates for the first hour of the day.

This little bird was singing his heart out this morning.

However.  I love to be awake and about during the early hours of the morning.  There is almost a magic to it.  A quiet contentment and a subtle sense of expectancy fills the air.  And sunrises are most certainly magical.  So, morning is my favorite time to hike.  We hike all day -- we have no choice -- but it is all of the hours before noon that I love most. 

Morning photo shoot with a most unusual-looking lizard. Species, anyone?

By noon, the magic of morning has worn off; we have been moving for about six hours and our bodies are in need of a longer break.  It also gets warmer, and the birds sing a little less.  The light is at its highest and brightest, dulling the colors a bit.  Afternoon is probably the hardest part of the day.  The end isn't near enough to be excited about, and the body is getting tired enough to demand a little attention.  Somehow our minds seem a little more tired in the afternoon, too.  Early evening gets cooler, the colors get richer once again, the critters come back out, and there is the anticipation of reaching camp.  Early evening isn't as good as morning, but it is certainly closer.

On my way to breakfast.

All hours of the day are required.  There is no skipping the moment I have to wake up any more than there is skipping the long afternoon.  It cannot be just one long morning.  In hiking as in life, we take our favorites right along with our not-so-favorites.  And, if we're good, we learn to mix the two to even things up a bit.  Which is why my favorite breakfast in bed is a Snickers bar, and Jazzercise tunes are reserved for after noon.

This is a trail register. Open it up, and sign in!

And so, I wake up at 5:00 a.m. every morning.  And each day I am rewarded.

Trail magic!