5/5/18

Solo camped on the mountaintop last night and awoke to a beautiful sunrise again. I always face my tent to the east to wake up with a dawns light.

I’m wanting to get to Ridgecrest by mid afternoon and that is 18 miles away. So I started hiking about 6:15 and pushed hard all day. It really warmed up today but it was quite cool in the morning.

After 9 miles I got to the spring the only water on the trail today. The water was cloudy and smelled funny even after I filtered it. I had a half a liter left of good water left and 9 miles to get to the road. Fortunately the last 6 miles were all downhill with gentle grade which made for fast travel and I stretched out half liter of water all the way to the road. There at Walker Pass was a trail angel with trail magic. She made me a lettuce wrap sandwich. I downed a couple of Gatorade’s and two bags of chips along with some watermelon. What a way to end the day. It is amazing how many people help through hikers, from trail magic to water caches.

Hitched a ride into Ridgecrest. Got a motel, did my laundry, took a shower and had two pizzas for dinner and a liter of soda.