Day 43 - Mile 586

This morning at 7 we were picked up at the German bakery by the only taxi driver in town to get a ride back to the trail. Ismail is a retired aerospace engineer and he does this just for extra money in his retirement. He has a great sense of humor which is refreshing that early in the morning. 

Once on trail we bagan dealing with the WINDS again. Generally speaking in the morning winds flow downhill and in the evening the opposite. So we were dealing with winds that were wildly blowing every which way, but mostly down, in our faces as we tried to make headway. At one point I was walking sideways, or crab like, along the trail using my trekking poles as two more points of contact, because if I hadn't I'd have been blown off the trail by the wind. Geeze Louise!

Once we finally got the first big climb done and came around the mountain on the leeward side I was able to take a nice morning break, chumming it up with Joshua trees. 

 

What else can I say? We walked and walked and walked, sometimes on trail, sometimes on a jeep road. I took a sliding tumble sometime mid day without much harm. Or so it seemed. Later my ankle on the right foot started feeling sore but I hadn't twisted it. It's more like I jammed it or something. But there's no rest for the weary, or injured so I waked another 10 miles before I got to the campsite the gals found for us. A 20 mile day with a spring at mile 17. This means we only need to hike 16 miles tomorrow to our next water source. I hope it isn't as hot tomorrow as it was today...88 degrees at one point. 

Guess who is back...

Next day... The ankle is fine. Not to worry.