We walked in the rain for the majority of the morning. It would abate and then pour, abate and pour. Winds were super high and packs were heavy. I noticed with this heavy load, my hip joints would hurt as the day wore on. I hiked really well the first 4-5 hours of the day but after that my pace would get slower and slower until I could barely get my legs to turn over. Last time I carried a 50 pound pack was thru-hiking the High Sierra Trail however many years ago so I had sort of forgotten how it really grinds you into the ground.
Just when we all thought we couldn't take another step, we got to a road crossing and a water cache! I filled my liter electrolyte bottle at the cache. There was a guy was hanging around waiting to talk to us. He and his group had seen us crawling along the ridgeline and he wanted to talk because one of his relatives was a previous thru-hiker. One thing lead to another and he invited us up to the look-out where his group was taking a break from 4x4'ing. They pulled out chairs for us to sit on and made us Turkish coffee and fed us Tiramisu and fruit! We hung out with them for awhile and had our spirits rejuvenated. The best part was the guy drove us back to the trail so we didn't have to walk the extra. LOL!
The sun came out so we took the time to pull our tents out to dry. In didn't take long with the high winds.
I caught up with Carolen as she was looking at her maps. Her pack was so heavy she couldn't get it back on, twisted around, and half fell, half sat in the middle of the trail. We all laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. Once she got the pack back on, things kept falling off the back of it. It was one thing after another that gave us a good laugh.
We continued on and the rain had stopped but the wind still persisted. Howling winds! We had a steady climb till we pitched our tents on the top of a saddle. Joshua Trees and desert flora and fauna surrounded us in the whipping wind and the temperature plummeted. I didn't sleep a wink that night with the wind making such a ruckus.
Photos can be found on my Instagram @tinahikes
Author of Lola Hikes the Icy Mountain
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