The plan was to do a longer day, of about 19 miles, but we had a hard time hitching on the freeway ramp. We moved to the main street, near the McDonald’s (and I got a vanilla shake) and it didn’t work much better, until a pickup stopped, and the driver said he’d be right back and take us up to Walker Pass. It turns out he is the guy taking down the trash from Yogi’s cook out up at the campground, and he also just dropped some other hikers at the motel. Anyway, he got us back up just before noon. A late start on a hot and hard day.

Yogi's Trail Magic at Walker Pass
Yogi's Trail Magic at Walker Pass
View back towards the pass
View back towards the pass

We hung around the campground for a while, got cheese toasts for lunch, and drank some cool soda, but finally we headed out at 14:00, aiming at the spring about 13 miles down the trail.

The hike started with a long long climb. We stopped for some munching at the first campsite, 4.5 miles in. But it just kept on climbing afterwards. We did manage to make our second short stop at the top of the climb, so since then it was all downhill for the rest of the day.

Nearly at the top of the climb
Nearly at the top of the climb

We got to the spring just before 19:00, and headed down the steep side trail to the water. Down by the trough there was a weekend hiker setting up camp, and another guy we just met at the cook out, taking a sort of a hiker bath, with a bandana. We just filled out our water, treated the for the first time with Aqua Mira (because Idan is worried that in this section filtering isn’t enough), and headed back a short way towards the trail, where we saw a nice spot for our tents.

Near the Joshua Tree spring
Near the Joshua Tree spring

A quick dinner, and we are going to sleep late now, at 20:30. Tomorrow a long and hard day.