Monday, May 8– day 43

PCT mile 613.0 to 635.33

Even though it rained last night I found my tent quite dry. Today we hike out of the pine forested mountains, through the Mojave desert and then back up into another pine forested set of mountains. The sunrise was great again

As we hiked down I captured some nice shots of a carpet of dying Miners Lettuce turning pink in the morning sun.

And caught a great view of where we are headed

The flowed today were again spectacular. I’m so glad to be hiking in this area when they are still in bloom and while the heat is not so bad!

I’m now back down in the Mojave as evidenced by the Joshua Trees

Some of the Joshua Tree blooms have fruited

We resupplied our water at a huge cache — almost 100 gallons of water here! That will probably last only a month or less as the bulk of PCT hikers behind us replenish their supply. It is so nice of people to maintain these! We came across another, smaller one later and this one had extra food and supplies

I was able to snap a photo of a not too scared all-black Blue-Belly Lizard

And another first, a super-fast Leopard Lizard – I love the coloring and pattern on this guy/girl!

There are lots of abandoned mining operations out here – an old school bus near a mine…

Look closely and you might see a rusting hopper above the Joshua Trees
After hiking 18 miles I was delighted to find that I had a 1500 foot climb to my intended campsite. It turned out to be not so bad, even though a small rain squall passed through.

Along the way I checked for cell connectivity and learned the credit card info of the one card I am carrying has been stolen and my account locked. :{. Good thing I have my ATM/debit card.

The views were once again great!

And the sunset fantastic