May 30:Hiking Out of Mojave

It's always hard to get out of town and start hiking as early as you would on a normal day. For some reason sleeping in a bed makes you want to sleep in just a bit longer. We managed to get out the door of the hotel by 9ish, and then we had a 10 min walk to the road we needed to be at in order to hitch back out to the trail. We walked up to the road and stood there for less than 10 minutes before a Sheriff pulled up slowly. I looked @ Mark and asked quietly, "Is it legal to hitch here?" He replied, "I think so" as the Sheriff rolled down his window and asked, "You heading back to the trail? Hop in!" So our hitch was with a Sheriff, and I got my first (and hopefully only) ride in the back of a squad car! Did you know that the back seats are made of hard plastic and have indents in them in the shape of arms handcuffed behind your back? Not so comfy, but I suppose comfy isn't really the point. Anyway, Sheriff Dan was awesome!

The section out of Mojave is one of the driest sections of the desert. There are several long sections without water, and we carried 5 liters each out of Mojave to get us through the 25 miles until our next water source. That's 10 lbs of just water! And with our packs filled with 5 days of food (1.5-2 lbs per day), we were really feeling loaded up.

Nothing too special about the walking other than we walked for miles through windmills...I would guess hundreds (thousands?) of them. Oh, and Mark learned that he shouldn't eat a full Subway footlong right before walking in the heat in the afternoon. Apparently it makes you lethargic. Lesson learned!

We camped a little early, and I had one of the best nights sleep I've had since we started the trail. It was fantastic!

Total Miles:580.1
Miles Today:21.7
Camp 33:Jess' Great Night Sleep

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