Day 53 (11 June) - Mile 566.44 - 583.28

Highway 58 to Golden Oaks Spring

I had a pretty restless sleep last night. I was having a dream that I was walking in the desert and it was going to end just around the bend and then I wake up. When I fall back asleep I have the same dream and wake up. So I never make it around the bend. Very frustrating.

I set my alarm for 6:15 AM, but when it went off I knew there was no way I could get up, so I went back to bed and finally arose at 7:15. I really needed that extra hour. Tim and I went down for breakfast in the hotel lobby and then left just after 8:00 AM for the trail and arrived there around 8:30 AM.

By then way, this is where Cheryl Strayed from the book/movie Wild, started her hike. I haven't read the book or seen the movie, but I guess there was a shot of her in front of this metal structure, so Tim took a picture of me:

Just like Wild

After taking the Wild photo, filling my water bottles, and saying goodbye to Tim (I will see him on Monday) I was ready to hike at 8:45 AM. This was 1 hour and 15 minutes later than I was supposed to start and try to meet up with the group.

Getting a late start today.

The hike started out following Highway 58 for over 1.5 miles on a flat, but rough construction area along side.

Trail made rough by construction trucks.

When the trail finally turned off the construction area, I turned on my phone to send Tim a quick email and there was a text from Brad that said "Enjoy the climb up from 58 :-)". Climb, what climb?  I didn't look at the hike profile today before starting out so I have no idea what the hike is like today, but Brad knows.

Then the trail started climbing and didn't stop for over 5 miles. We climbed from 3,825 feet to over 6,000 feet. At least the scenery was incredible to look at during the climb:

Joshua trees along the trail.

A valley view

The climbing trail.

Finally, after 6.5 miles of hiking, just after 11:30 AM, I finally caught up to the group, who of course was just finishing up their break. They told me they were going to stop for lunch in 2 miles, so I took a quick 15 minute break and took off after them again.

I found them not long after just stopped for lunch and joined them. We hung there for about a 1.5 hour break and hit the trail just before 3:00 PM. At this point we still had 8.2 miles to go for our planned stop at a spring.

At this point the trial joined a dirt road for 4.5 miles. It started out pleasant enough:

Nice dirt road.

And then the road was steep and the hills went on for long distances.  We thought the trail was going to be a bit easier after lunch, but we were wrong.

It took us 1.5 hours to cover the 4.5 miles of the dirt road, and it felt good to be done with it.

Self-portrait "Finally leaving the dirt road behind"

We now had just over 4 miles to go and the trail finally became pleasant. Oh, and we walked through another wind farm.

Max hiking past wind farm.

And a cool rocky mountain came into view:

Cool mountain in distance.

It is really nice to have others to hike with again.

Max and Share Bear hiking ahead.

Kate (now Rocket Pop) hiking along.

Check out this view....amazing!

Great view.

We finally arrived at the Golden Oaks Spring around 6:50 PM. There were many other hikers there trying to collect water and filter it. This is the last water for 19 miles, so everyone needs at least 5 liters each. The problem is that the water is coming out of a PVC pipe very slow, at a rate of about 1 liter every 5 minutes...this will take a while.

I managed to collect 2 liters and filtered them. I was in line for my next 2 liters when I decided to save it for tomorrow and eat dinner...I was feeling quite hungry.

I quickly setup my tent and cooked dinner. Tonight's meal was shrimp-lime ramen with peanut butter, soy sauce, olive oil, and hot sauce. It was actually pretty good.

Soon after dinner I headed into the tent. I am pretty tired after last night's restless sleep. Of course I first have to get this blog done and it is now 9:45 PM. Tomorrow we have 19 miles to the next water source. If I make it, it will be my longest miles yet.

I definitely have to wear my earplugs tonight. We are camped not far from wind turbines and I can hear their sound and Share Bear said she was going to set her alarm for 5:00 AM...way too early for me. I should get an early start because of the mile tomorrow, but I need some sleep, so we will see.

All our tents set up for the night.