I had a pretty late start today around 7am. We are now back to hiking in the heat early in the day. Most of the day today was hiking along Deep Creek and ridge lines. It's nice to be so close to water these days. I usually carry 2L of water now between sources.
Kristen and I made it over to the hot springs around 10am. There were a million day hikers there with all their tents up (you're not supposed to camp there). As I was walking through the area, everything just reeked of poop and there was trash everywhere. I saw a bottle of whiskey, a styrofoam cooler, an igloo cooler, huge water bottle, and just trash all around the springs. It was so sad to see because maybe it's that I've been living outside for the past three weeks and the outdoors is now my home, but it was just disgusting to see all of the trash around. I soaked my feet in the hot springs for a few minutes before I got too sweaty, then I wanted out ASAP. I really hate hot bath things.
Soaking my feet at Deep Creek hot springs.
I finally found a semi good lunch spot in the shade with a little less trash and an older man named Richard came over and talked to us. He comes to the springs 2-3 times a week to pick up trash. He's been coming to the springs before it got all popular and it makes him sad to see how trashy the place has become. I felt so bad. It must be so hard to see a beautiful hidden gem become destroyed with huge loud crowds and garbage. We then talked to another older man who then went completely nude for his soak. No big deal. We finally saw GB as he was having lunch by the water.
Ridge walks through the desert.
The view of the Mohave River Dam from above.
The dam, so huge and wide.
Resting my feet in the shade.
GB being GQ.
Then we were headed off for a very hot afternoon. This section is probably my favorite so far. There's been a ton of ridge walks but the views have been so beautiful. The trail finally descended down to the Mohave Riger Dam. A couple of hikers were all sitting in the shade by the dam. I finally met the Asians from Taiwan here! They were super friendly and knew me too. One of them was named Jimmy and the photographer guy didn't speak English. They only have a 60 day visa so they're trying to get as far as they can. They headed out shortly after, hope I can see them again! We took a pretty long break before GB showed up and we got to catch up. We were finally all back together again! It turns out Lisa and Rusty are about a day behind since they only went out four miles with her mom out of Big Bear but they did get our note! We then headed off into the late afternoon sun. Everyone was concerned about where to camp since it looked like all ridges for awhile.
Finding our tentsite for the night.
We walked a little past 314 and couldn't find anything. We didn't want to get too far because we'd get stuck on the ridge again. We finally followed the dirt road off to the side and found some random spots. Ended up pitching in the wind again so that was a little annoying. We all got to hang out for a bit before. Usually we just pass out ASAP. We talked about our McDonald's and Wrightwood plans. We are most def looking forward to the next few days.