Catalina III

As I had predicted, the second day of backpacking was the hardest for most due to blisters and sore muscles!!  I was feeling very fortunate after a very good sleep and I faired very well without any blisters and not much soreness at all!!  One of the sorest places on me was my hip bones where my pack was buckled.  There were 2 ladies in our group that were VERY sick!!  Fever, aches, and bad cold symptoms!!  I give huge kudos to them for enduring!!

Our hike on that second day wasn't near the 14 miles we did the first, yet, somehow we managed to make the hike longer than was planned.  The trails were not well marked and so we missed our trail that was supposed to take us over the top and around Avalon to our last campground, so instead we ended up in Avalon.  It was not the worst situation, since there were some ladies who checked in to a motel for good rest.

Getting our tents all packed up and ready to set out on our second day!



Our group ready to leave, minus Shelly who is taking the picture

The first bison we saw on our trip.

A very common site, Connie and Gretchen huddled over the map..

Taking in the view!!

It was very beautiful, minus the haze over LA

a herd of bison.

This old guy was as still as could be.

lunch break and story hour!!  This was really close to where we missed our trail!

Heading down the hill after our lunch and missing the trail (you can see it here)
 which goes up the hill!

Sue and Lisa



That is the road that you see lined with trees that we took back into Avalon.



We made it to this zip lining place and knew we had missed our road.

resting and talking about our options

Lined up on the gate to give their backs a rest.

Hiking into Avalon and it was a little surreal to see civilization again!

Cute little Avalon!

This was Sue's actual birthday so we celebrated at a nice restaurant.

We all even had hot showers at Sue's motel!!

Our party of nine, looking all cleaned up!

After dinner, Connie, Gretchen, Heather, Lorinda and I set out on our night hike with our head lamps on our heads to find our campsite.  We were happy that is wasn't very far away and a very enjoyable little hike under the full moon!