IN THESE WOODS: DAY 45: JOSHUA TREE PRISON

miles: 20

Joshua Trees. A day of Joshua trees, exposed trail, and skin scorching, blood boiling sun.

Robin Bird Spring was a luxury we wouldn't forget, it would be our last natural spring water for many, many miles. In the morning, while everyone was groggily packing their packs, a sudden, loud sound and what do we see? A cow jumping the fence to get to the spring. Two of them. They were successful!

Cows... can jump.

Squeaks, having grown up on a farm, knew how to handle them when she went into the enclosed spring area and had success in clearing them out. I guess... it wasn't as pristine a water source as I thought...

I will say that the hiking was easy in the morning... We were fooled! The first half of the day brought cool pine forests that resembled the Sierras! As we cruised along for a few miles, we officially entered the desert (again).

Here are some photos from this morning:

Lunchbox enjoying the ACTUAL GRASS.

It got hot.

Suddenly this was the scenery:

Hey there desert, haven't seen you in a while.

Water Cache stocked by Mary!

We got to the water cache (stocked by Mary - thank you thank you thank you Mary!) and filled up. It would be a night of dry camping and running to the next cache tomorrow morning. However, it was too hot to keep hiking so we spotted a joshua tree (the lone joshua tree) in the distance and lumbered up the hill towards it, only to find about 5 other hikers already posted there! We would all fit under the shade of this tree and we would wait out the heat of the day.

All of us hiding under the tree.

Happy Hour, Squeaks, Viking, Dr. Slosh, Smiles, Ben, Angela, Starfox, and I would cram together under the few ounces of shade, for 5 hours. Eventually, we hung tarps to assist in the shade process, which was great for keeping the sun off of our skin, but mostly just cooked us in an oven.

The oven.

Viking sleeping under the Joshua Tree.

Angela sleeping.

Sweat, sand, sticky, dirty feet, we languidly lounged cozily, huddled together under the joshua tree until the late afternoon. Our goal was to get to Willow Creek by dusk a few miles away.

As it cooled down (sooooo slightly) we slowly packed up and got a move on.

Climbing climbing climbing, it was too hot to climb still, but we carried on anyway, anxious to get to camp. The landscape was dramatic and gorgeous as dusk approached. We made it to camp just in time for dark to fall and there was even a picnic table for dinner. A nice family dinner commenced.

Even Dr. Slosh and Smiles were there taking a break! Even though they had to move on and make more miles that night...