Destination: Dove Spring Canyon Rd.
Miles: 20
We slept through our alarm. Apparently, Psycho needed the sleep after his hard day yesterday. Once we were moving though, it would seem that he got the rest he needed. Apricots and Psycho glided with relative ease through the Piute mountains, down Landers Creek.
After taking second breakfast at Piute Mountain Road and Landers Creek with Uncle Tom and Pat Burglar, we continued our casual stroll through the pine forest. After a couple miles, we passed into a burn zone, that appears to have burned over a year or two ago. Trees were charred black, but vegetation had started to take hold. The trail was flanked by purple flowers and yellow flowers. The occasional lupine flowers stood out in contrast to the black pinyons.
The shade of the forest was soon gone as we dropped down to the hot dry desert. Just as we dropped into the barren shadeless stretch, we caught a glimpse of the snow capped Mt. Whitney (which is about 10 days away for us). Looking out at the wasteland, we dreaded hiking the desert in the heat of the day. We bumped into some "flip-flop" hikers on our descent, Tumbleweed and Grammelissa. We knew these two from our first week of hiking. They informed us the water cache ahead was near empty, which we later discovered to be incorrect.
After replenishing our water supply, we gathered under the one large joshua tree and waited out the heat. Perched on the hill, we watched hikers roll in, expressing relief that the cache was not empty. As the heat of the day passed overhead, we tried our best to stay in the shade and nap.
Sooner than we should have, we continued on in the late afternoon heat. Climbing up and around Mayan Peak. Passing bitterbrush and sagebrush, we made the final six miles to where we are deciding to sleep under the stars. It is a near full moon tonight, and we are planning to do a bit of a night hike. We are leaving around three in the morning.
Uncle Tom is walking around begging for water, as he accidentally left his water bottles back under the Joshua Tree. We had a spare bottle, with a bit of water in it. Here's to hoping the next cache is stocked.
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Hey somehow I missed this one. Sounds as though keeping water is the number one priority. The names of the various mountains and peaks are interesting and seem to have influences from all ethnic origins.
ReplyDeleteTake care and journey on with blessings.