Mile 659.7 - 683.1

Just as we thought, the winds were whipping last night. I thought it may be worst than it was though. Anytime you can at a high elevation you can bet it will be cold at night. The winds seemed to calm down as night went on which was very good for us. It's hard to sleep in a strong wind storm.

First thing in the morning. We camped on the ridge just before this photo. Y-Knot ready to start a new day.

Not a good sight. Lucky for us we had plenty of water to skip this spring. There is another spring just 6 miles past this one. Our water report said that this Joshua Tree Spring has high levels of uranium. As we were taking break by this trail junction an older couple came and needed water. They said they had to get some and hope for the best. I had so much from our last spring that I gave them each a liter of water to get them to the next spring also. They were very grateful. I wonder just how many people have to drink this uranium water because they are out of water. I hope no one does. Getting sick out here can be a game changer.

What do you know? It's sunny again. Go figure, and hot. That's the desert for you. I would like to say we are getting used to it but that's not the case. We should be at a huge milestone tomorrow. Kennedy Meadows is the end of the desert and the start of the Sierra's. So excited!

It took us awhile to figure this sign out. 

Then our hiking friend Sizzler, says "we are a quarter of the way through the trail". That is correct, but still hard to think we have three quarters of the trail left to hike. After all we have been through on the first quarter, it's so hard to picture what else can happen next. That's what keeps us moving. It's the unknown around the next corner that makes us move.