Day 38

May 16

Mile 569 - Mile 592

Our very windy but aesthetically pleasing campspot among the Joshua trees.

Last night may have rivaled Whitewater Preserve for windiest night on trail. Unlike Whitewater however, it was just as windy when we woke up as when we went to bed. The wind howled all night long, rushing through the trees and bending our tent walls inwards.

Although it was sunny, the wind took the edge off and it was not very hot at all. Our day started with an approximately 5 mile uphill with views eastwards out to the vast and very barren Mojave desert. 

We continued up to tree line from there where we appreciated both the shade and the blockage from the relentless wind. 

On a side note, an interesting thing we've found here in the desert is that we have to gain elevation to reach "tree line" where the trees start. We are used to the opposite where the higher we climb the fewer trees we see and "tree line" is where the trees end. 

Colorful mountain that reminded us of badlands.

Halfway through our day we stopped at the water source to fill up for the next 19 miles. This source had just been repaired, as it had not been working for a while and we were relieved we hadn't had to do a 25 mile water carry like hikers who had come through earlier.

Turbines behind burn area.

The rest of our day today was spent meandering through large swaths of burn sections and winding around smaller patches of wind turbines. The turbines have been a constant fixture of the landscape for the past few days of hiking and it now seems we have made our way past most of them.

Today felt very social and we were happy to pass most of the pack near the end of the day which provided us with the chance to find a nice campsite all to ourselves. We made camp around 7pm and enjoyed the rare opportunity to set up camp in the daylight and watched as the light faded into night.