Today I hiked 15.2 miles, 24.5 km. I got on the trail around 8 am, and hiked until 6 pm. It seems my legs are now capable of hiking 10 hours per day and around 15-17 miles consistently.

The tent site last night was perfectly placed to get the sunrise through my door. As soon as I saw the light hitting my tent, I opened the door to see an amazing sunrise over the neighboring ridge. Packing up was a little slow though, so I was on the trail only half an hour earlier than yesterday, despite waking up an hour earlier.

I walked about 3 miles along the mountainside, enjoying the view out into the Mojave Desert. After an hour or so, I found a nice spot for oatmeal and coffee. From up here I could see the trail descending, and I knew it was going to get hotter as I got lower.

Almost an hour into the descent, I met an awesome trail angel named Snow Angel. He was hiking up the trail with a backpack full of breakfast burritos for hikers. I ate a delicious sausage, egg, and potato burrito while chatting with him about the hike. He also told me that his truck was parked at the bottom with coolers full of water, soda, beer, bananas and turkey sandwiches.

When I got to the bottom I was stoked to see the truck set up with everything available. I grabbed a banana and a turkey sandwich, as well as a can of Pacifico lager.

Throughout the afternoon, the weather got hotter and hotter. At these lower attitudes the heat is punishing, and there’s much less tree cover than up higher. I know there’s a heatwave coming, and we might see temperatures up to 40 °C.

I made it to camp with plenty of daylight left, a nice change from the last week. I set up my tent on a good flat site, coooked dinner, and enjoyed the sunset in the valley below. An early night tonight for hopefully an early start tomorrow to beat the heat.