Today I covered 12.9 miles, 20.7 km. I fell short of the planned 15.7 miles, but I hit the jackpot and found back to back trail magic on both sides of the same road. Tomorrow, I’m going to need to leave early if I want to catch the people I’ve been hiking with for the last few days.

I got on trail this morning at around 8 am, which was a little later than ideal. I launched straight into a steep climb which went on for several hours. The view near the top was nice, and I could see the trail snaking down the hillside in the distance. Towards the top I left the trail (accidentally) and continued another 100m to the peak of the climb. To be honest, I don’t know why the official trail doesn’t include this peak, it was way better than walking around the back and missing the view.

I stopped at a water source on the way down to the next road. From the water source I needed to carry enough for 15 miles, plus extra for camping. In total, I ended up saddled with another 6 L water carry.

Near the road, I saw a chilly bin on the trail, and it was stacked with cold soda! Always a welcome sight on the trail, especially in the desert heat. After I’d finished a can of Pepsi, the owner appeared and told me he’s taking it back home. He told me to take more soda since he needs to take the bin away. Other hikers also started showing up and we all took what we could carry, which wasn’t that much since we were all maxed out with water. We all hung around for a bit and chatted before moving on.

We don’t get very far before seeing more trail magic on the other side of the road. Someone had set up an area with chairs, another chilly bin, more drinks and other good things like a trash can and hiker box. Of course this meant I gotta spend a little more time hanging out.

By the time I escaped the trail magic vortex, it had been nearly two hours. I adjusted my plan to arrive at a closer camp site than expected. While walking up, I also decided to have dinner at a nice spot while it was light. After that, I arrived at camp just as the sun was setting, I put up my tent and went straight to bed.