A long day of pretty cruisy hiking today. Got on trail around 7:30 am and hiked 16.3 miles, 26.2 km, with only a few hundred meters elevation. We spent about 12 hours on the trail, with long breaks for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Today was my first time arriving at camp after dark.

The trail started by taking us over the edge of Silverwood Lake. We walked around the rim of this lake for a couple of hours before arriving at a well serviced picnic area. We had access to potable water, toilets, trashcans, and tables in the shade. A perfect place for breakfast, so we got comfortable at one of the tables.

After breakfast we continued walking around the lake. After circling half the lake, we climbed up and out of the catchment. From the top, we could see the lake stretching around the mountains behind us. Walking around the lake and then up to the top took us to the halfway point of our planned 13 mile day, so we stopped at the top for lunch.

On the other side of the climb we traversed more hot, exposed and windy ridges. Once again we saw Deep Creek behind us, this time much more distant.

As we hiked into the afternoon, the sun dropped quickly. We arrived at a flat spot, but found no good campsites since the trail was in the middle of a gravel road. We decided to have dinner while still light, and then continued 3 more miles to another camp.

After dinner, we reached a lookout over jagged sandstone formations just after the sun has dipped behind the hill. The sand cliffs, and background light made for a dramatic sight.

We hiked up and over the sharply formed sand mountains. From the other side, we saw a spectacular sunset over the desert behind Cajon Pass. The winding trail, back-dropped by an extremely busy freight train line, and interstate freeway gave a mesmerizing perspective of the desert.

After sunset, we hiked for about 20 minutes by headlamp. Once we found good flat ground, we set up camp and went straight to sleep.