Unique Desert Experiences

May 29

It's 6:30 in the evening and we're already into camp. We have a few extra hours of daylight to wash our feet (with wet ones) and journal. Since we left Big Bear we've been hiking with Monologue, a nice woman in her early 30s who hiked the AT northbound in 2006. We know we met her that year on the trail but we're still trying to figure out where.

We've been having some great times. One we camped at a hot spring on the Deep Creek. It was very nice to hike all day and then soak in bathtub-temperature water. Apparently this hot spring is also a popular place for skinny dippers.

The next day we walked out of the Deep Creek gorge and found a lot of graffiti on the rocks. It felt weird to see everything tagged with bright colors and letters. That night we hiked to Silverwood Lake (manmade) and camped by a beach. I tried to go swimming but by 7pm it was already too chilly. We also met two hikers that night that started from the border on May 16th. They've been doing 30 miles a day! Oh yeah, and one of them is in his mid-60s. It put us in awe, for sure.

Today definitely marked a high point on the trail when we hit Interstate 15 and a McDonalds was .4 miles off trail. I've never been so happy to see those golden arches. We did 15 miles before 10am just so we could make it for breakfast... We also stayed for lunch and packed out some sandwiches for dinner. It was quite a differnt day to spend 5 hours with a bunch of other hikers in a McDonalds eating food and watching people in their normal lives. No one really even noticed the dirty hikers and backpacks piled in the corner!

We are attempting to do a 190 section here between Big Bear and Agua Dulce. This was only possible because we could pick up some more food in a gas station by the McD's. We have 5 days and 100 miles until Hiker Heaven in Agua Dulce. We're looking forward to going over Mt. Baden-Powell soon. It's been looming one the horizon for a few days now.

bluebird

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