Thurs, August 11     Miles today: 22.3            Total so far: 1,537.7          So. CA Section F

It ws still dark at 5:00 am, so we waited for a little while before getting up.  The sun had not even risen yet, and it was already warm and very windy.  The windmills near our camp had been running all night long, but their sound is not annoying, at least not to me, anyway.  It’s sort of a low-pitched pleasant hum.  But when we put on our packs–groan!  They were heeeeeavy with 6 days of food, PLUS a lot of water (we had 5 liters each).  After praying together as we do each morning, we were on our way, enjoying several miles of comfortable contouring, with views of impressive high cliffs and rocks.

But then the trail became increasingly overgrown with various types of bushes, which we had to push through.  Not fun!  Eventually we began to climb again and get views of Kelso Valley.  At one point, the trail was lined for over a mile with red flowers that hummingbirds seem to love!  I have never seen so many hummingbirds in one place!  The flowers were pretty, and the hummingbirds were really cute, but after awhile even I got tired of pushing through the “red flower plants.” 

Now we were truly in the Piute Mountains, sometimes in oak forest, sometimes among pines.  Finding a shady place for lunch was important–it was 95 degrees again!  In the afternoon came much climbing in the hot sun–very tough for me.  I have to go much more slowly and sometimes even stop in the shade if I start feeling too wiped out by the heat.  The PCT here goes in and out of public and private property.  It’s not hard to tell the difference–private property is WELL-posted!  And the PCT itself was peppered with warning signs about “stay on the trail” and “trail easement is only 10 feet wide”. 

Just before 4 pm, we reached Robin Bird Spring.  The guidebook had been quite ecstatic, describing it as a “lovely place.”  But what we found was vandalized, littered with “cow pies” and broken glass.  Even the spring was all messed up, but we found a note tacked to a post about how to go under the fence, up the hill, then find a black pipe where spring water was coming out.  As it turned out, the actual spring was covered with a box.  Again, Bill patiently pumped the water filter while I cooked dinner.   Usually we cook at noon, but when it’s hot and water is in short supply, we wait and cook AT a water source.  It was two hours before we were all done and got going again and we did another 4 or 5 miles before calling it quits just before 8 pm.  We found a great campsite among large boulders with lots of soft pineneedle duff on the ground.  And it even had a great “bear tree” for hanging our food.  I fervently wished we could have gotten more miles done, but carrying such a heavy load plus all that time pumping water, and the very hot day had really slowed us down.  But again, we are very grateful that God made it possible for us to be here, and every step we take is getting us nearer to the Sierras!