Day 23

Here is the lake we camped by, seen here in the morning light. This is by far the most water we've seen this whole trip.

We got up around our usual 6am and got out of camp relatively quickly. Our next water was only 2 miles away at a campground. We were there in no time and made short work of trashing up the area with our hiking gear.

Here I am filtering water (again) at the campground restroom. 

We found none of the drinking fountains or water pumps functional at the campground but luckily the sinks in the bathrooms had running water. We ended up filtering it just in case it wasn't potable. 

This ended up being a ridiculously long stop as we made use of the flush toilets and running water. It was nice to be able to wash pots and socks (etc) and dry them in the increasingly intense sunshine.

From here, our next goal was Cajon Pass, about 16 miles away, where there is a McDonalds just off the trail where we were to get our water.

A small stretch of views into land that was green!

Dirt road crossing. More desert here.

Little lizard with a neat pattern.

A snake I found off trail during a break we took under some power lines. He kinda looked like a rattler but had no rattle. He was pretty long.

After our break we headed towards the highway that would take us to McD's, walking down the ridge lines of hills that were eroding. Some of the trail was literally right on the precipice, making us a little nervous at times when the wind would gust.

Evening light on dry grasses.

There was even an official PCT sign for the "restaurant".

We made it!

Our actual stop at McDonalds was a strange experience as we were juxtaposed alongside ordinary, not completely filthy travelers who were on their way between LA and Las Vegas. We took the opportunity to eat some easy calories while the other patrons pretended to ignore us (we could tell they were looking anyway) and planned our escape back to the trail. 

After filling up on food and 5 liters of water each, we grabbed some red bulls from the gas station and found our way back to the trail. We had a 22.5 mile waterless stretch ahead of us, up an extremely hot and exposed section gaining about 5500'. We crossed under the highway and took a final stop to chug a red bull and prepare ourselves for the uphill hike ahead. 

There was a small series of tunnels that allowed us to pass under the highways and railways. Here I am in one of them.

All said and done, we managed to hike almost 6 miles along the spines of foothill mountains, illuminated in the light of the almost full moon. Some of the "hills" were these great huge round rocks, all stacked in layers like drippy sandcastles. I wish I could have gotten a pic but it was too dark.

We also saw some more interesting creepy crawlers tonight:

A scorpion! So authentically desert-y!

We called it a night at around 11pm after having done 22 miles. Whew! Goodnight.