Saturday, May 9th -- Day 17

- Full moon tonight. The moon is spectacularly bright here, and bathes our campsite in light.

It turns out that we hiked about thirty miles yesterday. Big day. Today we hiked 17 or 18, and I don't feel bad at all about not breaking 20. We made our own trail through a stretch of desert where there was none, and found coolers full of pop under a bridge. After relaxing for a short while, we moved on. The terrain was pretty flat for once, but the rising heat made it unenjoyable. At around noon, we came across the Mesa wind farm. Bottles of water had been left out next to a huge truck that several hikers were relaxing under. I had lunch, then crawled into the shade beneath the truck and dozed for a while.

After nap time, Tom, Jerry, Steve, Bactrack (another hiker. Duh) and I took off for the hills at a pretty good pace, which slowed dramatically as we hit the trail approaching San Gorgonio Pass. Te ground was sandy, giving way under each step, and the trail switched back and forth at hideous angles. This section, however, was short, and we made it through the pass to strong winds and firm ground on a steady descent. I'm not kidding about the strong winds. We were getting blasted, and I had to struggle to stay on the trail. Finally, we made it to a stream? River? It's flowing fast and powerful, and I've never been so happy to see flowing water in my life. We set up camp in the sand of a dry creek bed close by, and made dinner. I had a chicken dumpling backpacker's pantry meal, and it was the most fulfilling camp dinner I've ever had. I'm not stuffed, but it just felt so good to eat that mess.

Anyway, stars are out and beautiful. I'm sleeping without the fly on my tent tonight.

G'night.