Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Passing 25 Percent

Day 50-June 2nd
Destination: Fox Mill Springs
Miles: 19

We woke this morning, without incident from the neighborhood bear. Excellent, we still have food to last us the last two days (today and tomorrow) to Kennedy Meadows. We rolled out of Joshua Tree Spring at 7am.

Today was a day of going up and down. We started with a short climb from the spring back to the trail. From there we dropped a couple hundred feet, before beginning our first climb of three for the day. Apricots commented that the trail is making us stronger, and ready for the Sierras. We have now passed the 25 percent mark for the length of the trail.

After the small climb of about 1000 feet, we dropped back down from the ridge to Spanish Needle Creek. Psycho and Apricots finished filtering water, as Uncle Tom arrived. The two of us enjoyed a Snickers, to power us up the next climb of roughly 1600 feet. This climb was far rougher than the first, and we took a short break about one mile before the top.

The rocks scattered across the trail were covered in bright green and deep orange lichen. Yesterday, Apricots commented about the lichen standing in sharp contrast to the stone it clung to, stating it looked like someone spilled a paint can down the mountain.

After attaining the saddle and admiring Mt. Owens peak from the north side, we skirted a ridge. We made a short small descent to the shade of oak trees, where we ate our lunch and took a nap. When we woke from the nap, we were surrounded by ants. A few seekers must have told the colony that food was in the area. After moving all our gear away from the ants, we packed up and made our descent.

To pass time, Psycho shared a story about how Goat and Hawk were best friends. The story also explained the origin of Egyptian deities, as well as the reason humans cannot communicate with animals. In no time, we made the drop down to a creek where we replenished our water supply.

We had one more climb of about 1100 feet to Fox Mill Springs. We had planned to go further, but the day was late, and we were hungry. We made a dinner, and as we ate we were treated to a beautiful sun set.

As we sit here talking about how four of us passed a lone grape sitting on the trail left behind by a snacking backpacker. After all chimed in and said they almost ate it, Wizard admitted that he picked up the grape to eat it. Oh, how the trail makes savages of us.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

1 comment:

  1. You savages...too funny about the great. Just think with all the beauty you describe, you have instant replay of 'going into the wild.' Snicker are mentioned often...must be a staple of the hiker.

    Good to see you all online today...and a new post...does my heart good.

    Journey on with blessing of safety

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