Friday October 4, 23.5mi/37.8km

Ridge above Darwin Canyon (55.0/3280ft) to White Mountain Talc Road (78.5/5980ft) (CA)

It was so windy last night, and I woke up covered with a fine layer of desert sand. Gross. Since packing up also involved a cleaning step today, I didn’t get moving down the trail until 7:45am.

I hiked up a gentle hill, and then dropped down into a shallow wash to cross it.

I kept hearing these strange noises all morning, and after a couple hours, I discovered the source… Burros!

I approached and they ran away.

Oh well, onward. I saw several more burros, but they were too fast to get a photo. And then I was distracted by this lone Joshua tree. They usually grow in large groups, so this was strange.

I hiked cross-country another hour, and then got to the highway crossing where I had cached some water.

The rest of the day was on dirt roads, and I saw only one car all afternoon.

After two hours of roadwalking, Joshua trees started to appear. Thousands of them.

Apparently they are in the Lily family, and related to asparagus and onions. What a delicious family.

So many cool looking Joshua Trees.

I hiked 13 miles on dirt roads, and I came to my final water cache.

I refilled my bottles, and then cut up the jugs to fit inside another jug. They take up much less space this way.

I hiked another hour, until 6pm. There were so many Joshua trees!

The sunset was fun to watch as I rolled into camp.

I setup my tent under a setting sun…

… and a setting moon too!

It’s not windy at this spot, but at 6000ft, I’m expecting it to be colder tonight.