14:00 HOURS: Weather not as bad as park rangers say it will be. More watching out for mountain lions than "hurricane force winds". It's June, how could that possibly happen?

14:32: Head out on trail. May have overpacked. Shit's heavy.

Hike 5 miles to Old Forest Inn. Kickass sights along the way:

16:40: Camp set up. Wind starting to pick up, but still really not too bad. I pick a spot on the south face of a little mound between me and the wind. This turns out to pay off, big-time.

18:00: After we cooked dinner and cleaned up, the weather takes a turn for the shitty. Winds coming fast off the top of the mountains are wailing right on down the hill to where we our, on their way towards the valley.

20:00: We retreat to the tent. Wind gets louder and louder, tent is, at various points, trying to take off, but stakes are well-pitched and all gear is inside, along with the both of us.

Winds for that evening, according to Park Ranger dudes when we finally got back, were recorded at 110 mph about 800 vertical feet up from where we camped. TV and web weather dudes have all sorts of reports. I had no wind gauge, but 80-100 doesn't seem unreasonable, based on the experience of laying there in a tent, listening to what sounded like a 12 hour sustained passing over of a freight train. On the plus side, there are things you can do to entertain yourselves in such circumstances.

Twelve hours. And it wasn't over when we decided to pack up, regardless, either. We just didn't feel like waiting anymore.

So we hiked the fuck back out of dodge.

By the time we got back to the vehicle, it was becoming a little more reasonable, but at this point, we were too close to a hot cooked meal and a hot shower to turn back around.

Later, post-cleanup and grubbing, we ran into these two gentlemen, who insisted that I take their picture.

Lesson to be learned: Don't waste your time engaging in logical discourse with dudes with prison tattoos. It's not worth it. Also, I cannot confirm that they were homeless; it is quite possible they live in this van:

Perhaps they even have a pet one of these:

When I arrived home, last night, my cab driver screwed himself out of his tip by "accidentally" driving past the turn I told his ass to make, such that the fare ended up being what I was willing to part with, total. He either did it on purpose to jack up the fare, or he's a fucking moron who can't follow instructions. Either way, I know how much it costs to get from the airport to my condo, and I don't pay extra to morons or scheming nobodies. Particularly not when I haven't had a fucking cigarette for 7 hours in airports.

It's funny how sometimes you just really need a cigarette.