We woke up after a very comfortable night. Packed up ate breakfast and hit the trail at 6:40. At a mile and a half we stopped at the stream that flowed down next to last nights camp to top off our water. We are needing to carry about 2 1/2 L as we have 11 miles 4 of which are steep uphill to our next water.
Well, today is just a steep uphill
Our campsite last night is down in the valley where you see the lighter colored trees popping up
We believe we are heading for this saddle before we drop back down
We continue to pass through amazing views of Gods incredible creation.
In the picture below, you can zoom in and see a portion of the trail that I circled just as we started our hike out of camp this morning
We did indeed reach the saddle that we were looking at. We came up and over. I could look down into the valley of the mountains on the other side.
Spreading Phlox, it’s another new flower I am seeing along the trail. Both photos are of the same flower, one is all white; however, one has a purple tint.
We have come to another mountain pass, this one looking back into the Mojave desert
We’ve been eyeing this meadow down below us thinking that might be a campsite where we will stop for lunch before continuing on.
I love the rock formations I find on.Trail
We are encountering a number of blowdown’s today. I like this one that we had to crawl underneath. The next we had to crawl over.
We reached another mountain pass and decided we were hungry, and it was a nice place to stop for lunch.
The Splendid Woodland-gilia is a small pink flower that is new to me on the trail. Another small pink and white flower is the Bridges’ Pin Cushion plant. Which seems to grow in clusters.
More of the jagged mountain peaks I find it so interesting.
This is a really cool rock balancing in its place.
We reached the stream close to the campsite in the meadow we were going to stop at for lunch, instead, we refilled with water, took a short break, soaked our feet, and then continued the final 2 miles uphill to where we will camp tonight passing more incredible geologic features.
We met a new friend along the trail trail. He didn’t want to talk and just slithered away.
We arrived to our campsite. It is along another river at the site of an old mill. There’s parts of what I believe to be a Studebaker scattered among some of the debris.
I set up my tent, made dinner, and invited Jeff and Ellen over to my dining room for tonight's meal.
Today’s miles 14.4 Total trail miles 683.1
