Day 6 & 7 - Wind!

Day 7
May 2, 2012
Miles:  23
Total Miles:  101

A couple of crazy days of wind!  Yesterday, at the Sunrise Trail-head campsite, I only got a few hours of sleep due to high winds throughout the night.  My tent blew down on top of me several times due to the sandy ground not holding tent stakes.  The early evening was peaceful and I did not expect the wind to pick up in the night.  Let me tell you, it is extremely frustrating and uncomfortable to have to get out of a warm sleeping bag after hiking poles fall on you, put on warm clothes and run around your tent in the middle of the night, in the dark, in the wind, trying to secure it while the wind throws it this way and that.  I finally determined I needed to turn my tent 90 degrees so that it wasn't acting as a sail in the wind.  I also tied the leading side to my half empty pack for additional security as an anchor! 

I woke up miserable with a few hours of sleep and packed up in the still gusty wind and trumped off down the trail cursing.  No sleep, no breakfast...what kind of experience is this?  Well, a little misery is all part of the experience and I can look back on this a week later with a smile.  Hiking took me many windy miles this day across the mountain to a water spigot where I cooked up some instant potatoes and tuna and ate them in tortillas.  Then came the ten mile descent down into the San Felipe desert to Scissors Crossing at Highway 78.  I ended up camping near the overpass in some trees and bushes to protect from the still ferocious wind.  Magellan, Laura, IPod and the Kiwi - Trip were also at the underpass.  Trip hitched to Julian and brought back a whole apple pie, which he shared with hikers!

In the morning on May 2nd I started off at seven AM and hiked five hours up out of the desert to a water cache.  The afternoon was spent hiking the remaining ten miles to Barrel Springs near the town of Warner Springs, just nine miles away.  An amazing thing keeps happening in these first few hundred miles - trail angels!  Fantastic trail angels were waiting for us at Barrel Springs in a couple RV's in a parking lot off the side of the road with beer, gatorade, CHILI DOGS and a seat by a fire!  What an amazing treat after completing my longest hiking day yet, 23 miles.  They had coffee and bagels for breakfast - who could ask for more?  Sometimes I feel like I'm being treated like a rock star while hiking the trail.  So much generosity.

The Barrel Springs Trail Angels

Another first - I crossed 100 miles today!