It's the desert alright...

We were up on the trail by about 7 this morning. Sometimes you're just hiking along, looking at your feet so you don't face plant....and then you stop (so you don't face plant) and look up...and WOW. 

You realize just how tiny we are in this big old world. I know I keep saying it, but the desert is just so vast and the trail seems so remote. Usually during the day, we leap frog with four or five other people and then end up at a camping spot with a few more than that.

After a small climb in the morning , we hiked most of the day in what I would stereotypically think of as desert. Cactus, sand, hot, not much cover and not much water.

We took lots of breaks when we could find a little shade. 

Came to Tule Spring. We had to hike down 1/4 mile off trail to get water (I know it doesn't sound like much, but hiker friends know how much that can feel like when you're doing 17-20 mile days) Anyway, we loaded up because we knew options were limited today. Still getting used to carrying four or five liters of water. Our next water option was this underground cistern 

And the water in it was as stagnant and gross as you might imagine. We were glad to be hauling our fresh spring water and passed on this. Next water option was 

An empty water cache, so glad we had loaded up. 

Got to a nice campsite on top of a mountain tucked in between a bunch of boulders. 

Our first night that it was warm enough to sit outside and eat dinner and chat. And we got to see a beautiful sunset. I have to post several pics because it just kept getting better!

New challenges tomorrow. We encounter our first fire closure section. We have to figure out an alternate route. More on the later. It's nearly 8:00! Bedtime :)