We woke up feeling very well rested in the backyard of Casa D&D.

Our comfy spot at Casa D&D

I didn’t wake up once last night – it was divine! Since we knew it was going to be a cool day due to the rainstorm rolling in, we weren’t in a big rush to get on the trail. We woke up about 8:30 and had breakfast of leftover fried chicken and Fritos and dip that we had for dinner last night. We were able to spend some more time chatting with Dave before he and Dale took us back to the trailhead. In the car, Dave and I both commented how one decision that I made yesterday – to take a ride with him and not Stogie – set off a chain of events that brought the 5 of us together. We really developed a great connection in a short amount of time and are thankful for it. We gave big hugs goodbye and Daddie Gizmo and I started on trail at 11:30. Our packs were pretty heavy because we had to resupply for 94 miles to Lake Isabella. We planned for 6 or 7 days to get there. It is remarkable that we still haven’t done a 20 mile day. We had so much time to enjoy the trail since we started early that there hasn’t been any pressure to do big miles.

Still walking through windmill farms

Knowing that it would be cooler the next 2 days we bought meat, cheese and a loaf of ciabatta which is going to be a very nice treat. Our hike was nice since it was a cloudy day. We took a break about 9 miles in under some Joshua Trees.

Sieata time!

Their little needles are sharp and I bled pretty good when one poked me in the big toe. We finished the day 12.5 miles in at a little over 5,000 ft. The clouds were becoming darker and we wanted to set up camp before any rain began. We found a great spot with the perfect windbreak. Someone even left some gin – ha! We didn’t drink it because we already rationing water in this part of the desert and don’t need to dehydrate. We each have less than 2 liters on us and have 12.4 miles to the next water tomorrow. This was a 25 mi stretch without water. As soon as we got the fly on the tent we felt drizzles. We finished getting things in the tent quickly and were warm and dry! We enjoyed our delicious sandwiches, read our books and were asleep by 9:30. It was a really nice day 😊