Day 35: The cruelest of jokes

Day 35 – 5/26/16

Robin Bird Springs 602.1 to 624.3

Total miles: 22.2

I always seem to sleep pretty good for the first few hours until midnight. Then I toss and turn for hours. Last night I woke up and it was pitch black and the stars were out. I thought it must be super late since the moon wasn’t out but then I remembered that the moon was rising late. It was only 11:30. And so began the 5 hours of unrestfull sleep. 5 am came and I began my daily routine to break down camp. 30 or so minutes later and we were off. Only 7 miles to water. The start of a 42 mile waterless stretch.  At least we were in a forest with lots of shade though.

The fog was gone and so we could see the awesome views of the mountains in the distance. Which my camera was not wanting to pick up. The first couple hours we were at a pretty quick pace. 5 Star does a mileage check at the top of every hour and he said we were doing 3.2 miles per hour.

At 7 we pass by the British family. There is a contraption in the creek bed which we think was for gold panning.

The scenery and terrain was amazing. It felt so good to finally be done with the desert. At 8 we get to the road where we have to go get water 0.4 miles off trail. As we are walking down the road 5 Star says “if I had to pee I would write Mommy just to freak her out.” I hand him my poles and he asks if I have to pee. I tell him no but I have water. I spell out Mommy and we walk off laughing like the immature school boys we are. I may be getting older but that’s no reason to laugh at stupid stuff.

We get to the water and it’s a piped spring. I fill up my dirty water bladder and then proceed to squeeze the water through my filter and into my bottles. As I’m finishing up my second liter Captain and his crew of scallywags walk up. I ask Mommy if she got her message. She asks if I peed it. I told her it was a joint effort. I confess that it was just water. She found it pretty funny. Captain tells us that he talked to the south bounder that passed us a couple miles back and she said there are three water caches over the next 40 miles. Well that’s nice. Problem is you never trust a south bounder. And at this time of year a section hiking south bounder! We decide to trust her and only carry 4 liters.

After the water the scenery got better and better. Words and pictures can’t do it justice.  Wild flowers, green trees, boulders, distant mountains. Just amazing.

And then it all went away. The trees and flowers disappeared. It was an empty shadeless brown wasteland with the occasional Joshua Tree. What happened?! I thought it was finally over!

I come down the mountain and we come across the first water cache by a road. I fill up a liter and take off. It’s starting to get hot out in the sun at 1 pm. We continue on our pace, my pace, becoming more like a crawl. I get to a section that starts to climb uphill and I can’t do it. I’m completely exhausted and the only shade is 50 feet away and up a hill. We head over to it. I drop my pack and just sit. The sun is baking my energy away. I put some Gatorade powder into one of my bottles hoping that will help. My shirt airs out and after 20 minutes I start feeling better.

We set off again and it’s only a couple miles before we come across another dirt road and there is a table. We sit at the table and 5 Star says he has service.  I check my phone and I see I have bars but not 4G. He has AT&T and I have verizon. Dang. Oh well.

There is a campsite 2 miles away so we get up and plod along. It’s a long two miles. We get to the campsite and it’s full. We continue on a 100 feet more and there is some space to cowboy camp. Well, hopefully my third time will work. I set down my pack and the dogs are barking to be let out. I grab my gear and take off up the hill and let the dogs out while hiding behind a Joshua tree.

I come back, pull out my pad and sit. Just sit. It is glorious. Captain and crew show up 30 minutes later and sit by us. Mommy and Daniel don’t cowboy camp and so they set up there tents. I watch, and smell, the crew cooking. It does smell good. I have some peanut butter, Nutella, and brownies. I’ve been eating a lot and now I’m worried if I’ll have enough.

The sun starts to set and I set up my pad and pull out my quilt. I’m dead tired. 27 miles to Walker Pass. Captain and crew are spending a week in Ridgecrest which is about 15 miles off trail. They are waiting for Ducky who went home for a week. Probably won’t see them again. Sad days.