Journal June 5th – Shall we say diner at Seven Thirty?
Deep orange streaks lined the horizon aove the mountains to the east as we arose, packed and hit the trail. With not quite a quart of water each and 2 1/2 miles of this rugged cactus whacking to go before reaching our water cache, we were intent on getting there in the cool morning hours. Thirst was a more powerful incentive than the calves still sore from yesterday as we pushed forward.
Fortunately the cactus and thorny trees thinned some and the rocky terrain turned to a more hard packed surface and were able to get to the water cache in good time, in fact in time to have last night’s deferred dinner this morning at 7:30 am.
In the hour we were on break at the cache, a dozen border patrol vehicles and only one or two civillian trucks drove by. I suspect they had left a morning briefing and were “fanning out” to their designated routes for the day.
After a reasonable rest we pushed off across the highway and back into the desert for 3 miles more of cross country travel before coming to an old jeep road. The day turned hazy and hot, blazing hot by noon, so we pulled out the ground cloth and umbrellas and made shade from two thorny bushes growing out of an arroyo bank.
It clouded up mid afternoon bringing temps down slightly but sending the humidity up. We were able to break from the midday siesta early and started hiking again at 3pm.
The promise of rain building up was never realized, at least not where we were. The route returned to an old jeep road and we rolled across a series of tall ridges and deep arroyos, like a slow moving roller coaster. A rattlesnake, about 4 ft long, was out on the road, sleeping until we arrived.
We plodded on again until dark and made camp among the creosote bushes and cows.
15 miles
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