After a short, warm, night at the spot we crashed in last night, we finally got up and got moving just around 7:00. We were still last to move from the campsite. And also had some hikers pass us, who, we assume, started before sunrise from Hiker Town.

Will trucking past me, in between the wind turbines
Will trucking past me, in between the wind turbines

The first 5 miles towards the Cottonwood cache were like last night - a flat and boring road walk. The views are not all bad. There is something hypnotic in seeing all those wind turbines rotate together. And the heat wasn’t THAT bad. And we had a nice wind to keep us chilled and relatively dry.

Will, Alpine Start, French Toast and two others which hall remain nameless (Sorry, I don't remember their trail names) at the Cottonwood cache.
Will, Alpine Start, French Toast and two others which hall remain nameless (Sorry, I don't remember their trail names) at the Cottonwood cache.

At the cache I drank a liter of Gatorade (from the powder) and had some snacks, before heading on towards our next stop, another 6 miles ahead. We made a short nap stop on the way, and still managed to get to the Tylerhorse Canyon before it got to hot. We stopped under a nice, somewhat shady, tree on the left, and later discovered that “everyone” went down to a bigger tree, a bit off the trail to the right. Oh well. We still rested there for a couple hours, to let the heat pass. We finally left to finish off our day at around 14:00, with about 7 more miles of climbing to reach the water cache at mile 549. It was indeed a long climb, but we got there at the end. The cache had some gallon bottles with water, and a big stack of half liter bottles as a bonus. So we were all good.

A short while later Salt Shaker and Xtra Smile came along. They did what we did from last night. Only they started before dawn, this morning. So it’s 30 miles with no full sleep. Very hard. Early-b came in as well, as did Pedi, Quinoa, Soap Box and Half-n-half. Some of them camped here, and some went a bit further on. Only a short day into town tomorrow.