Day 7 - The Heat of the Day

Scissors to Barrel Springs - 23 Miles

What a fantastic day! We hiked 13 miles before 1:30 through pink sunrise mountains and sweltering exposed heat. Keeping Sky and Andrew as company most of the day.

We found Mr Baggins who we met at Jurassic Park under a lone juniper for shade in a hot hot little valley half way through the morning. It was there that Andrew gobbled a giant chunk of greasy hot cheddar like a seal eats a fish at the zoo. He joked about unhinging his jaw and it was then and there that he was dubbed Omaha Cheese Snake forever more. Or cheese snake for short.

After hiking the 13 miles to the 3rd gate water cache, and after a long hiatus under more shade, we went to fill up our water.

I heard my name called out by voices I couldn't quite place and saw faces I recognized but couldn't quite remember either. Being in trail mode I'd trained myself to have a directory of hikers faces. But what a wonderful surprise this turned out to be. It was Shotput and Pepperflake who I had met the summer before whole solo camping near Mt Jefferson. They were thru hikers from 2013 who I had followed for a couple miles, asking questions and prodding for information for my own hiker. What a cool trail surprise to see them here! We caught up a little, they were hiking south bound to kickoff with a couple other 2013ers for kickoff. Pepperflake was leaving for the CDT on the 29th and Shotput was leaving for Alaska soon!

After catching up, Sky begin to campaign the idea of doing 10 more miles, at night, past mile 100. An idea which slowly gathered support, even from the tired Sammy and T-Bag.

We hiked into the sunset and witnessed the desert turn from hot and inhospitable to cool and covered in a pink hue with a cool breeze. We stopped by billy goats cave as the light disappeared and hiked the remaining miles in the darkness. Past mile 100, a wonderful feat for our first night hike, and my week anniversary on the trail. We hobbled into barrel springs at 9pm, which is hiker midnight. I went to bed tired but proud. These have been some seriously great days with some seriously great people. Among the trees and running water. I couldn't wait to nail down the last 10 into warner springs in the morning. A little 23 miler pain is worth a of this!

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