Day 4: Monday, May 1

Before we left the Shriner Campgroud this morning, Leslie and I collected the laundry we left hanging in the ladies room the previous night. We'd attempted to clean our hiking clothes with the shampoo the campground hostess gave us--but there seems to be no end to the dirt that comes out of your clothes. We headed out around 7 when it was still cool enough to wear a jacket--at least for the first 5 minutes we were on the trail.

The early hiking was breezy and not too hot; lots of wildflowers and expansive views. For the first time since the beginning of the hike there are a few clouds.

By 10 we were hiking in an area that had extensive forest fires in 2001. There was a lot of new srubby growth, and the skeletal remains of the burned out oaks made a sculptural contrast to the emerging plants. The downside of the burn area was that there was absolutely zero shade and it was starting to warm up.

Around lunch time we stopped at the roadside corral at Sunset Hwy(?) to get water from the well there and some reprieve from the sun. A number of hikers had snatched up the limited shade availble in the shadows of the roadside john and from the small water tank next to the well. We hung a tarp from one of the coral hitching posts in an awning type arrangement and baked under there for the next few hrs--it really wasn't very comfortable.

We headed out around 3:30 as it was starting to cool down, and stopped to make dinner at Chariot Canyon. We met a hiker who was just moving on named Wounded Knee.

We finished dinner around 6:3O and arrived at Rodriguez Rd (a dusty, dirt road xing in the middle of nowhere) around 8:30 where a whole gaggle of hikers are tenting. A nearly full moon accompanied us for the last hour of hiking along with a nice breeze and mild climate. Early morning and late evening are deinitely the best times to hike here.