Hot Trail Continues and Mike's Place - (Starting Mile 117.3, elevation 3173)

Another hot day of a winding trail through the desert.  Water is scare and I've had to ration carefully to make it from one water source to the next.  This is challenging for me because I usually drink A LOT of water.  The highlight today was Mike's Place at mile 127.3.  This is a Trail Angel who lives on a ranch in the desert and has set up a large water tank 0.2 miles off the trail.  It is well water, but we are still warned to filter or treat.

Blessed water and a donation box.

A sign encourages hiker to take a zero or nero.

Welcome to Mike's Place

Caretaker in red shirt, barrel mid-pic for washing and gal from Sweden in blue dotted shorts.

Orange tarp for more shade, hammock on the right.

Hiker Box where hikers get rid of stuff that other hikers might use.  There were shoes, partially used fuel bottles etc.

Last year's class painted on side of Mike's barn.

Hikers packing up to again hit the trail.

Looking back at Mike's as I climb out of the canyon.

There are signs that encourage hikers to continue down the hill to the ranch to camp
 or just stop for a rest and some trail magic.  I was talking to a gal from Sweden as we filled up with water.  We decided that since it was so terribly hot, we would hike on down to the ranch to check it out and take cover during the hottest part of the day.  The caretaker greeted us with cold Pepsi and offered to grill up hot dogs, which we eagerly accepted.  There was a tub under another barrel of water that we could use to wash our hot, dirty feet.  There were chairs to sit on while we treated and re-bandaged feet.  I did notice that as trashed as my feet are (3 good sized blisters and 2 bruised toes), I had much less than the other 4 people sitting there as we compared
injuries.

There was also an outhouse.  I wish I had taken a picture.  There were two walls with a two-seater toilet.  There were two big markers so a hiker could place their trail name on the walls.  I slept for about an hour under a shaded tarp.  The caretaker gave advice about water sources ahead; which to use and which to avoid.





Rested, I started hiking again.  I really wanted to get further down the trail, but again, due to the heat, I finally set up camp on a high windy ridge (elevation 5575) at mile 129.2, which is not my favorite place to camp.  It was very exposed, but I was too hot and tired to go further.

Camp site on an exposed ridge. It was a bit breezy, but I was too tired to care.