October 23

This morning we got a ride to get a real breakfast. We were hooked up with huge breakfast burritos and some French Toast and numerous gas station items for extra calories. It took us two hours to eat and fill ourselves before we finally left to hit the trail. We all hiked pretty slow at first, letting everything settle and being that it was 10 am before we started it was already quite warm. The desert sun was just as intense as ever and we had two decent climbs before things smoothed out. The water sources haven't been too far apart and mostly reliable, although I did spend 30 minutes searching for a spring. I did eventually find it, but the water was too shallow to get any and overgrown with stinging nettle that I left without water and hiked the 3 miles to the next source dry. Some of us managed a 21 mile day and decided to camp. Bobcat, Nat and Jane went a couple miles farther to get to the Anderson's a little sooner tomorrow. The Anderson's are trail angels that have an incredibly reputation on the trail as being hosts of Casa de Luna. It sounds like a vortex and a place that might suck us in for longer than we have planned for.