Day 47: burnt windfarm forest - Landers camp (mi 586-609)

A horned toad lay in the path and pretended to be some gravel. Lucky for him, I saw him before putting my foot down.

The first '600' indicator, notably not at mile 600.

Smiles at the real mile 600.

Dr. Slosh again keeps it gangsta, another 100 miles north.

Hit 600 today. Finally starting to feel really good about this. Remembered back the last 7 days and 130 miles ago,  a desert crossing away. Difficult though those days were, we had a really good day of hiking today. Part planning and part luck, once the temperature kicked up around 9:45 we were hiking in the canopies of oak and pine woodland for the most part during the heat of the day, when we were stuck with a long, hot and exposed fire road climb within 4 miles of the spring, which was to be our first water stop of the day, about 20 miles from the last mile. All things considered, it was a pretty splendid day. I saw a different species of horned lizard, and even got to pet one. They seem to be more obese, more disc-shaped, and lazier overall than their nearby desert congeners. We  sat at a beautiful babbling piped spring with Boulder, Scooter and Viking and idly chatted as water boiled for our mashed potato lunch. Once the sun found us from behind a shadow, we decided to press on to the next water source, a spring in 7 miles. We started hiking at 5 pm, and it was still hot. I'd say mid-80's. we briefly reunited with t-Rex, rocky ad sour cream, who started 4 miles back of us and had not been so fortunate with temperatures. Thirsty and tired as they were, we kept it brief to allow them to recover (they spent 6 hours under the hwy 58 in a culvert, then climbed to the spring by night. not a lot of sleep, to boot). The 7mile stretch from robin bird spring to laurel spring were relatively flat, while carving in and out of the stands of pine. The campsite is nice, and deserted. We park our sore, sated and hungry selves in some pine duff near the sprig, take care of the evening chores, eat a delicious pasta-Roni Alfredo with chicken heavily fortified with olive oil (210 cal/oz) and lie down a bit after hiker midnight. The next day will be the last easy water day until the sierras. It is hard to believe, that the desert is almost over. I will remember it fondly, in ways, as it was a relatively new environment, and I learned a lot about the communities. The desert was beautiful, when not burnt, and very Rarely in the heat of the day. It was not easy, but it isn't supposed to be. It can embody the spirit of my alpine mantra (you dont have to be having fun to be having fun).  I am looking forward to the end of the desert, but for some reason I feel a touch guilty for saying so. Of course, it's a cool 48 degrees outside now. Ask me again once the thermometer breaks 85 degrees...