Day 40; Tue June 5 2007

(Dr Bug) We met Dozen as we left camp this morning. He had hiked all night to get here. The morning hike was very pleasant in the pinion and coultier pine forest. Saw another mule deer on the trail that was in no hurry to get out of our path.

Unfortunately the trail turned into a huge burn area that lasted the remainder of the day. Mountains and canyons covered in dried grasses and black, chared, dead pine trees.We hiked this type of terrain till 6 pm where we crossed a stream. There we found a hiker named 'old corpus' camping. The skies were getting dark so we decided to camp also. The hasty decision cost us. We pitched our tarp on a very windy beach-like area. The wind blew sand all inside our gear and every crevice of our personal areas. It was not pleasant. Thankfully it did not rain. The rain, wind and dust would have been a killer combo causing a very bad night.

We hiked 21 miles to get to this camp site. We are at mile 686 on the trail.