Hike for a Hospital

Cactus, washout and I had a late start and headed off to the next water source which was a water tank above mikes place 4 miles up the trail. We were planning on only filling up our bottles and heading off, but section b told us to go down to mikes place.

Turns out there was a heap of other hikers sitting on his deck, there was also beer and food. After eating a phillipino feast, drinking a couple tecates and playing a few rounds of horseshoes, I decided I will call a day a nero (near zero miles) and camp there the night. U haul and i were beat soundly at my first ever game of horseshoes by cactus and anchorman. Mike made his famous BBQ grilled chicken which went well with a little Cuervo gold.

I got started the next morning at about 8am and pushed a good 9 miles before 1130. The day was getting pretty hot so we all slept under a tree for a whole. Cactus made a burrito with peanut butter, gummy bears, black pepper salami, goldfish crackers, honey and jalapeños. He said it didn't taste very good. The gummy bears were a similar texture to gristle.

I almost had an encounter with a snake later in the afternoon where he rattled at me when I was about 1 meter away from him. I rapidly back peddled to a safe distance for a few minutes and wrote a note for other hikers to watch out. I was just about to take a careful detour when Virgo came along wondering what i was doing. He threw a couple of stones near the snake and it slithered off slowly away from the trail. It was far more efficient that my method and I intend to adopt it in the future.

There was a big thunderstorm and whe had hail in the desert. It was pretty crazy walking with thunder and lightening all around. Virgo and i ate a mandarin each. I walked till About 10pm which made for a ~21 mile day.