May 12th, 2022 by Jon
I slept so well last night, maybe the best so far on trail. Maybe it was a little bit of the wine, but I woke up feeling really great and my feet felt ready for another day of hiking. Getting ready didn’t feel quite so bad this morning and we were able to pack up, eat, and start hiking right before 6:30. The sun was coming through a small gap in the mountains above as and bathed the entire valley in a golden hue. There was a lot of long yellow grass this morning, which contributed to the golden vibe, and it was very pleasant to hike.
We had hiked down between two mountains last night to camp, and now we had the climb back up the other side. We had 1,500 feet of elevation to climb over 4 miles and the miles came fairly easily at that grade. We climbed over many ridges today, and this was our first. We rode the trail in and out of small canyons on our way up. The wind grew in intensity as we went. With it being so early, whenever we were on the shady side of the mountain, we were pretty cold. It was good motivation to keep hiking, and I tried to just keep a steady pace without stopping. We passed a few hikers who were packing up, and one who was still in their sleeping bag, cowboy camping (just on the ground, no tent).
We pushed higher with great views of the mountains we had just climbed over before finally reaching the top. There was a dirt road that went along the ridge, and the trail paralleled along the side of it. We walked for a while on top before dropping down a little bit and started our decent down the other side. The trail was lined with oak trees and was blessedly out of the wind. The trail marched down the hill, and before long, we came to Bear Spring. Even walking up to it we could smell the sulfur that was in the water, it was a small concrete tank the spring dropped into before overflowing and saturating the ground down the hill. We pulled a liter each but didn’t filter it yet. We hoped the road in 2 miles had enough water at the cache that we wouldn’t need to drink this. But in case there wasn’t, we would be ready.
We continued down, my pack feeling very heavy with 6 days of food and 4 liters of water. Thankfully, it was only another 2.5 miles down, and when we crossed the road, there was a huge amount of water in a small clearing right off the trail. There were a few containers that were marked Bear spring water so we dumped our 2 liters in there and filtered some water from the cache. We sat there for a while, had a snack, and regained some strength. I drank about a half-liter before leaving, and then we pushed onward. We had another 12.5 miles to go to finish our day, and we made plans with Seabiscuit, who had just left the cache, to have lunch in 6 miles.
Once again, we had come down a mountain, crossed a road/valley, and were now headed back up the mountains on the other side. This time was more gradual, though, and we went sideways across many mountains, barely gaining elevation. We had great views of a lake whose name we couldn’t figure out. We turned a corner, though, and so our elevation started in earnest. We gained elevation rapidly; this climb didn’t have very many switchbacks, and it felt like we just went right up the spine of the mountain. The trail was pretty washed out, too, and it was obvious that when it rains, water flows right down the trail. We persevered, continued climbing, and fought the wind that seemed to hang out in the top half of these climbs today.
We got to the top after another 3 miles and spent the next 3 after that climbing back down. We were at the very end of a long valley so as we climbed down, we also hiked out of the valley. There was much more shade in this section, and we saw a few hikers taking a break in the shade of small trees. We came to a road lined with bushes and joined Seabiscuit there for our break. For lunches this time, we are trying to just have lots of snacks. Our breakfasts and dinners are pretty structured, but lunch is just a random assortment of ziplock bag snacks. We enjoyed our food and rested in the shade for about 45 minutes. Some day hikers passed by and asked if we were doing the whole thing. When we responded that we were, they got very excited and wished us well.
After relaxing long enough, we hiked out for the last 6 miles of our day. We passed by a very nice, huge bench under a large oak tree. It would have been a great place to take a break, but seeing as we had just stopped, we didn’t take advantage this time. We entered another huge C-shaped valley that we would spend all but the last half mile hiking that afternoon. Because we weren’t on top of a ridge, all we could see was a desert plant covered bowl below and we stared at it for a long time. The trail meandered around the whole thing, and the only notable thing to say is that we passed a very scary-sounding beehive. We walked quickly past it, and soon we finished the entire loop.
We hiked down off the last ridge after crossing over it to a road. We signed the trail register at the bottom and crossed the street to arrive at a forest service fire station. They had a water spigot available to hikers. I was glad because when I got to the bottom, I had just finished the last of my rationed water. It was pretty hot in that last section, and I wished I had more to drink, but I couldn’t carry all that weight.
After getting water, I laid on the ground with my feet up on a tree for about 30 minutes, feeling so happy to be off of them. We had done nearly 20 miles by 3:30. One of the firemen came over and said hello and told us we could camp up on the hill behind the station and also let us know there was a closet with tons of Gatorade they kept on hand for hikers. Elated with our good fortune, we thanked him profusely. Another hiker showed up who had just come back from a quick hitch into town with a bunch of chips and Arizona iced teas and offered us some too. It was absolutely delightful.
We finally moved up the hill to pitch our tent and begin making dinner. Our whole group had arrived and there were also tons of others showing up as well. We had already picked our spots, but many hikers joined and camped super close to us once we were in our tent for the night. It’s kind of annoying, but what can you do?
Tomorrow, we hope to hike another 19 or 20 miles to a primitive campground with trash cans and pit toilets. Should be a good time. We hope to have another fast day because it’s starting to heat up and Saturday it’s supposed to get into the 90s. Yikes.
