Wednesday November 29, 16.1km/10.0mi
US Highway 60 (334.5/2000ft) to McMullen Valley (344.5/2080ft) (AZ)
It was a cold night, and I slept until 7am, when I could feel the air start to warm up. After a nice hot shower, I walked over to the restaurant for breakfast. It was a lazy, relaxing morning with nothing else to do after breakfast but wait. I sorted my food on a table, to make sure I had everything for the next 5 day section.
Eventually, we left the campground, and said goodbye to the cozy little place.
TopShelf had arranged a ride back to the trail with one of our campsite neighbors, but he was nowhere to be found. So, we walked to the highway and hitched a ride. We made a quick stop at the grocery store, which turned into a long stop. Finally we were ready to do the final hitch back to the trail, but there were hardly any cars. After an hour, we gave up and asked for a ride from the storekeeper. She agreed to give us a ride at 3pm! We arrived back on our trail at 3:15, about three hours later than planned. Darn, time to make up some miles with night hiking. We watched a train go by while we were hiking.
And saw way too many green fields…in the desert. What a waste of water.
Just before sunset, we saw Cullings Well, an old water source that was famous for having a beacon light so people could find it.
We night hiked until 6:45, about an hour later than we usually hike. Darn short daylight hours! Hopefully it’s not as cold tonight.