Mile 404 to 418
Morale: chill
Boom: ”It’s really cool how you can look out and see pine forest on one side of the mountain and desert on the other”
Fey: “yeah...”
Boom: “that’s it”.
Well, not an easier fourteen mile day did we ever have! We were all about leisure today, and I'm pretty sure we crushed. It.
After being coaxed into a long day yesterday, we decided to take it easy and set ourselves up for success over the next couple of days. Fourteen miles today puts us at the last water stop for 19 miles and within an easy two day journey of our next destination with wifi and hot water, the Acton KOA.
We woke up to the sun blasting over the mountains and straight into our tent. Liz was still REM’ing hard and despite the bustle of campers nearby, she powered through to grab an extra thirty minutes of winks. The morning hike was relatively flat and easy compared to the previous day. The dreaded poodle dog bush was interspersed throughout our trek, so it kept us from completely zoning out as we walked.. Our determination to avoid high sun led us to stomp down the trail without many breaks or conversation.
We convened at a water hole with most of the folks we camped with the night before. Chuckles and Little Spoon rolled up a few minutes later quite excited to see the water as they had run out a couple miles back. Little Spoon kept repeating, ”don’t run out of water, you’ll go crazy! Don’t run out of water, you’ll go crazy!” A couple lizards were scurrying around and doing push ups and provided ample entertainment as we scooped, poured, filtered and repeated. Another mile and we were on top of a mountain with massive pine trees specked across the landscape. We chose a large patch of shade in a grassy field to settle down and relax for the afternoon.
[Morning views; The dreaded Poodle Dog Bush; Rest spot; drying out sleeping bags; risotto and veggies!; mmm that string cheese]
Since we were living the high life today, we broke out the instant coffee gifted to us by Jetpack and enjoyed some fine, fine, single origin pour over while enjoying the view. We didn’t stop there though. A pouch of Trader Joe’s risotto has been rumbling around our bag for a few days, and it was time to make it happen. It took much more effort than our standard meals (boil water, throw food in, wait five minutes and eat) but I suppose it was worth it. After stuffing our faces and eating sour patch kids for dessert, Fey took a little nap while I aired out our sleeping bags and looked at the trail ahead.
We were hoping/expecting that the Slow Magic group would catch us during our siesta, but a surprisingly few amount of people passed by as we lazed about.
It was tough, but we threw our packs back on and shimmied the final six miles down the mountain to a fire station just off trail that had a water spigot! It’s quite a luxury to have clean, running water out here. We cooked some more and tried to lighten our packs as much as possible knowing we have lots of water to throw in tomorrow.
Little bird baths in the spigot felt sublime as we enjoyed the sun setting behind a nearby mountain range. The big take away from the day is that after six weeks hiking and sleeping outdoors, we are finally starting to figure it out. We know how much food we eat each day. We know how much water to carry to our next spot and that it depends when in the day we are hiking and how much we'll be climbing. And today, it seems as though we’ve figured out how to put in some good miles while taking a relaxing siesta and still making it to camp early enough to kibitz for an hour or two before jumping in our sleeping bags.
[Siesta time; our spot under the pines; on the move again!; some burnt trees; great views; great people]
