Day 6 - Day 7

After we left the water tank yesterday we had a bunch of miles to do and boy, they were some exposed miles with full sun. One blessing was the wind which cooled us down, but then again, it also made it impossible to use our umbrellas and it also made it hard to tell if we were being burned or not. 

Sparrow is in the above photo. See the little blue dot on the trail?

Hiking in the heat, even though we set out after 2pm, was still really tough on us and Mike and I admittedly got a little burnt in the afternoon. We had one unexpected and very long and steep downhill which really took it out of us.

By the time we got to the bottom, we were feeling a little delerious from all the sun. We found a group of hikers posted up for a break at the bottom of the decline and we stopped to take a break and be social. Unfortunately there were no shady spots left to rest in so we stupidly sat in the sun (w/umbrellas) while we ate snacks and chatted. It was a bad idea. We didn't feel the best by the time we all got up to leave, but we pushed on nonetheless to get to the next water source.

We took a break here in the shady side of a ridge before making it to the water source and camp.

Along the way we saw a ton of beautiful cactus blooms in pink, yellow, and bright green.

Finally making it to the water, we rested and filled up. Despite the fact that most hikers were staying there for the night, our plan was to get closer to the road so off we went again. It was much cooler and we've discovered that we do our best hiking in the evening when the sun isn't so oppressive. On the way down, we skirted the last mountain on the way to the desert floor and we were rewarded with beautiful views of this landscape, including some old mines. 

We found a great camp spot just as the daylight completely faded into night. We all slept pretty decently and woke up early this morning feeling good and ready to tackle the 6 miles more to get to the road. 

Our camp spot.

Because of the water situation this year we were forced to hitch 13 miles into the small town of Julian to get water before the infamous climb up the San Felipe Hills. We broke camp and headed down finally reaching the floor of the desert by about 9am. 

We made it to the road around 10am, happy to be crossing here before the heat of the day began. 

As soon as we reached the road crossing we heard a car approaching and all stuck out our thumbs. To our surprise the driver  stopped immediately and let us climb aboard. Our hitch's name was Eric and he had his dog along with him, named Mike. Eric said he was a semiretired roofer and has lived in and around this area his whole life. He also noted that his step-mother was the woman who would bring the animals onto the Johnny Carson show back in the day which was a pretty cool little tidbit. We chatted about horses on the way to town and enjoyed the scenery along the incredibly windy road into Julian.

We got dropped off near the gas station and then scoped out a place to do some laundry while we sit out the heat of the day. 

We're currently sitting here at the Julian Country Inn, a super cute little B&B type place with a very kind lady running it who so graciously let us use her pay laundry and lounge around her back patio area while we wait. 

We grabbed some lunch food and just made and ate super deluxe sandwiches which were super filling and delicious!

Vegetables!

We're about ready to head back out again and gain back all the elevation we lost (ugh). We've got a new tube of sunscreen and are planning on trying for another 11 miles tonight.