Okay so today was the most physically painful day to date. I slept in till about 4:08am. While packing up, I could see the sky getting bright already. Not a good feeling. I like to start hiking out in the dark at least for an hour before I turn off my light. But it was ok bc most of the morning was actually inside trees so it was quite chilly until the water. This was the last reliable source until walker pass, a 42 mile carry. There were lots of talk about caches and what not but it's always hard to trust them. I ended up packing out 6L. I've been trying to eat my food to lighten my load too. It's so annoying, I feel bloated all day.
The walk out was ROUGH. Within just a mile or so, my shoulders and ankles were hurting bad. Our packs are not supposed to carry over 35lb so I think that's why there's so much pain. Each step was so hard. GB ended up passing by a trail angel who was dropping off water at Keslo Rd. So after talking to her, he dumped out 3L and let me know he saw her. So then I dumped out 3L haha. I always feel so bad for wasting water but man, the weight was like night and day. It would've taken is forever to reach the road with that much weight. As I was walking toward the cache, all of sudden Rusty sneaks up behind me!! I was so surprised and happy to see him! Turns out he left tehachapi the night we did and Lisa had a friend from LA take her to LAX. He caught up so fast! Not surprised though. We ended up meeting GB for lunch and caught up.
WATERRRRR.
As we were heading down the ridge toward the cache, it was SO hot. Someone said today was around 97 and tomorrow will be triple digits! Oh my. We reached the cache and there was literally no shade except one Joshua tree up the hill. I filled up 6L and headed up to the shade. We ended up taking a siesta with Hobbit from San Antonio and Moonshoe from Portland. They were both pretty cool. Once again, I forced myself to eat more food to lighten my load. By 3pm we started heading out. There was a mini thunderstorm that lasted about ten minutes. The hike out was pretty slow. We had one long hill until we reached a spot to end for the night. We found a picnic bench and had dinner there with Danger Dave and Smiles. They are a goofy bunch. We ate dinner together and they all had a very serious and descriptive conversation on poop. I think I've been hiking with guys for too long. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do my share of poop talk but their's had so much imagery. It's been fun but maybe it'd be nice to have a girl around to talk to once in awhile. I miss you Lisa!
Sunset looking up from my sleeping bag.
I am cowboy camping again tonight next to a Joshua tree. The sky is light pink and blue as the sun just set. It's super windy and I am exposed. Tomorrow is going to be hot so I want to make most of miles not in the sun since we don't have much water. It'll be interesting to see what happens. This has certainly been the hottest and driest section to date. All the heavy weight is getting to me.