27th May 2025

The post office was the definition of madness. Memorial Day weekend had meant a 3 day period of post office closure and all hikers in town had arrived for its 9am opening time, simultaneously collecting and sending packages. The locals are surprisingly patient considering how hikers dominated the queue. 

Feeling overwhelmed we returned to the hotel and juggled getting a lift back to trail. Having been travelling in a group of 3-5 for the last couple of weeks I realised how difficult the logistics of arranging things for a group of 9 was. We were about to embark on the final 135 miles of the desert. The stretch from Highway 58 to Walker Pass is known for being the most brutal: hot exposed walking, long water carries and loose, sandy trail. In addition, a heatwave was forecast to coincide with our ETA for the most exposed part of trail.

We were dropped at the trail head for lunchtime. The trail followed the highway before beginning its ascent up the hills. Other than yellowed brittle grass, vegetation was sparse. Without the wind, the day would have felt unbearably hot.

We camped at the water source which was a trickling tap and took about 5 minutes to fill a 2L bladder. Due to limited camp spots we had to pitch on a slope which resulted in a poor nights sleep. As I was pulling on my thermal bottoms they ripped, this time the hole was unrepairable, essentially halving the bottoms. The cherry on top of the cake though was when Dan spilled the boiling macaroni onto the floor resulting in dirt and sand covered pasta. We cleared up and continued to eat about a quarter of the intended macaroni with the full cheese sauce, which was essentially a salt bomb.