Day 45 - Joshua Spring to Fox Mill Spring
Today we had quite a day. It was exceptionally hot, and we had a lot of climbing to do.
The first one was in the morning. We managed to do most of it still in the shade, before the sun came over the mountain range to our east.
From there we went down, and found an unexpected water source just half a mile before the expected one. It was a pretty nice looking creek, and we got good water from it. We also had a nice breakfast there. And then - another major climb. This one was even longer, and after a lunch break at the “top”, we climb a bit more.
The day was getting very hot, so at the saddle before the big descent we made another long stop, about 7 miles from the end. But we couldn’t bring ourselves to wait out the heat, and headed into the 5 miles hike down at 14:00. When I got near the Chimney Creek, and the road, at the bottom of the valley, I ran into Bambi. She immediately said “follow me for some trail magic”. I literally ran after her to the road, where she gave me two bottles of Gatorade, two cookies, and two tangerines. She also offered a full subway sandwich to split with Idan, but it wasn’t vegetarian, and contained ham, so we both didn’t take it.
Apparently Steve was just there, picking up Steady for the day, and he gave Bambi and Rudolph all that stuff (and more. They got their share). So we got some awesome magic. There was also a cooler by the creek. It contained mostly empty cans, but I found one beer can (and so did Rudolph), and Idan drank a diet, decaffeinated, coke. We also had apple squash from there. So all on all - a great stop.
We rested there for about an hour, before the final 2 mile, 1000 feet climb. We got to camp at about 18:00, and found Rudolph and Bambi here. Rudolph hurt his knee yesterday, so they are taking it slow into Kennedy Meadows now. Hopefully they will get there tomorrow.