The morning started out with Sarah running late—the directions had failed her and she ended up in San Bernardino instead of Pasadena, so Marcos, Nick, and myself made the best of the delay by killing each other in a round-robin Halo2 tourney. Of course, Marcos did most of the killing. By the time we were on our way, the sun was well up and our destination of Islip Saddle was still an hour away. We finally hit the trail at 10:30. The first few miles were great, we established a pace, which was generally too slow for Marcos and Sarah (both cross-country runners), and enjoyed the views as we climed around Islip mountain, past the Little Jimmy campground, and up to Windy Gap.
It became quickly evident that Nick and I were in much worse shape than Sarah and Marcos. Sarah got the nickname ‘drill seargent’ as she egged us on each time we tried to rest.
About 6 miles into the 16 mile hike, my legs started cramping. This is a problem I have had ever since my soccer days in high school. Usually its nothing that a lot of water and a few banannas won’t fix.