Day 5
Today's Miles: 18
Got a later start today (about 8am), but that was because we were only planning on hiking 9 miles to the next water/camping. Although we trekked along without too much stopping this morning, we did have to pause more than once or twice to take in some great views.
Loving these views!
In this shot, the boulders by the small lake looked like sheep from afar.
Small field of wild flowers.
We were originally planning on getting picked up from Scissors Crossing on Friday. However, with the rest of the day ahead of us, we decided to see if our ride could pick us up a day early (Thursday evening). With the 'ok' given that our ride could make it, we loaded up to hike another 9 miles to get to Scissors Crossing by 5pm.
With the promise of a bubbling hot tub and cold beer pushing us on, hiking 9 more miles seemed like a great idea. The trail was very rocky, the cactus looked very poky and the wind had been pushing us around all day. I had been looking at my feet trying to avoid twisting my ankle on the rocky trail and all of the sudden I looked up about a foot ahead of me and saw a snake. A BIG snake. My first thought was "oh cool a snake". My second thought was "oh S#*! that snake is rattling at me!!". The 4ft. rattler had coiled, rattled and struck at me. I let out a scream and turned around to scurry down the trail to safety.
Can you spot the snake in the grass?
Seth HATES snakes! I think he would rather take on a mountain lion than a snake. He reminds me a little of Indian Jones with his hat and his sever hatred of snakes. We tried to wait for the snake to move, but no luck. We had woken him up and he wasn't too happy about it so we eventually had to scoot up the side of the mountain to go around him. Needless to say we were on snake watch the rest of the day.
We finally dropped down to the desert floor. It was a glorious feeling to have soft sand under our feet and flat trail to walk on.
We called our ride (my dad) on the HAM radio to let him know we had about three more miles to go. He told us there was a cold beer and a lawn chair waiting for each of us...we have never hiked so fast in our life! We ended our push to Scissors Crossing by enjoying some beer and homemade jerky with my dad and a few other hikers. Another exciting day!
We will be spending Easter weekend with my parents and will return to the trail Monday morning to begin our climb up to Warner Springs. We will make some gear adjustments and upload tons of pictures this weekend. But for now, it's time to enjoy some time soaking in the hot tub!
