Day 14 (15 April) - Mile 123.86 - 136.96

Several Small Campsites Among the Boulders to Upaved Tule Canyon Truck Trail, CA

Although last nights campsite was picturesque, it wasn't the most comfortable. I was rolled into the side of the tent the whole night. I'm not saying that I didn't get any sleep. After all that climbing yesterday plus the heat, nothing was going to keep me from sleeping.

By the way, here is a picture of the site we pitched the tent without the tent on it:

Pretty crazy place to pitch a tent.

The day started out great, as usual. Some great views:

Morning in the desert.

Gerri self-portrait.

Plus we didn't have to carry much water since there was a water stop only 3.5 miles up the trail. That is where we saw this sign:

Sounds great!

So off we go. 100 yards later we come to this huge water tank filled with water that was ready to drink (no need to filter).

Now that's a water cache.

We decided to go down to the house to thank that owner of the tank and wound up with a little bonus morning drink:

Tacate beer makes for a better morning hike.

After about an hour talking to the caretakers and other hikers, we left with still 10 miles to hike. Yes, we are trying to only hike 10 miles a day, but we found that campsite locations and water locations drive the mileage per day.  As soon as we got back on the trail we saw this sign:

Only 25 miles to Paradise.

Paradise Cafe is the next PCT landmark we hit. It is supposed to be super hiker-friendly and have really good food. This is a great new goal. 

A bit further up the trail we turned around and got a view of Trail Angel Mike's property we just left.

Great view of a great rest stop.

It was a bit hot so we decided to try hiking with our cool umbrellas. Tim really liked it and continued hiking the rest of the day with it. Me, I used it for about 1 mile then put it away because I didn't like the way it obstructed my view. 

The fancy hikers.

The trail then went down for the rest of the day (about 7 miles), and still afforded us great views.

Beautiful views all day.

Tim with umbrella & view of downward trending trail.

Oh, check out this lizardy thing I saw today:

Desert lizard?

We also saw our first snakes. I don't know what kind they were, and I didn't hang out to take a pictures, but they were black with yellow stripes down their back. 

We finally made it to our end goal of the day, the Tule Spring which wound up being a large concrete holding tank with a hose a bit down hill from it. The water, although we did have to filter it, was cold and great tasting.

Water holding tank.

Hose to fill our water bladder.

I usually leave you each night with a picture of our tent, but I forgot to take a picture before getting into it. Let me just tell you that it is pitched on nice level ground and we expect to get a great nights sleep.