Day 4-6: Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire

Mile 59.5 to 112.1 sunrise TH to meadow north of Warner springs
Hello everyone! It has been a hot couple of days.
Thank you to all of you who are following us! We never would have imagined that we would receive so much support. The last few days have been amazing and we seem to be getting the hang of everything. Thus far we have been in the Anza Borrego Desert, Laguna Mountains, San Felipe Hills, and Montezuma Valley. We will be heading out into the Anza Borrego Desert and into the San Jacinto Mountains very soon.
On day 4 of our hike we hiked the rest of the Laguna Rim, around Granite Mountain, and into scissors crossing. This was only a seventeen mile hike but this was by far the hottest day we have had and the most monotonous for me (Jenna LOVED this section).

When we got to scissors crossing we were fortunate enough to have water cached by a local trail angel.




Without the water there we would have had to hitch a ride fifteen miles into Julian. We were relieved and grateful beyond what words can describe for this act of kindness. After we refilled our water and gave our legs a rest we hiked an additional mile into a little slot canyon where we slept. This has been the best campsite so far. So amazing!




Day 5 we woke up at 4:30 am to hike through that San Felipe Hills. This area has a reputation for being one of the hottest, driest, and toughest sections. Since we were up early this section was very enjoyable for both of us and we got to watch the sun rise while we hiked. Once again we were fortunate enough to run into water stored at a place known as the third gate cache. A month ago this had 500 gallons of water!




After getting water we continued hiking to Barrel Springs making our total mileage for the day around 23 miles and we crossed mile 100 shortly before making camp. We didn't even notice that we had crossed this milestone and therefore did not get a picture. We got to camp and went to bed, but not before eating some of the most delicious pita bread and humus conceived by man.




Day 6 has been our easiest day yet. We did a simple 9 mile hike from Barrel Springs into Warner Springs to get some supplies and retrieve our food package. Jenna takes medicine for migraines that is also a drug for insomnia. I accidentally took a double dose of this medicine thinking that it was ibuprofen (my neck was hurting from the lack of a pillow) so the walk was fun but I was almost too sleepy to even enjoy the days hike or eagle rock.




I will have to be more careful.
We got to rest at the community center in Warner Springs and fill up our water. The people here made us an excellent brunch with blueberry pancakes, sausage, eggs, coffee, and orange juice. They had everything at this community center! They let us charge our electronics, eat, drove us to get our packages, let us use computers, had supplies and snacks for purchase and all donations go to support the local school district. Very awesome! We have pretty much been hiking alone but it seemed all of the hikers near us were concentrated in Warner springs and we met many new people including Aaron, disciple and trigger his dog, voodoo, twinkle toes, buffalo, bud and tumble, allysa and chip.








You know it's an awesome community when everyone leaves their backpacks outside unattended and no one takes anything. We finished the day by hiking a few miles out of town to a meadow.
It has been a fun hike so far and we both our thoroughly enjoying ourselves (except I don't like the heat). We like hiking early to beat the heat and being able to get to camp early in the day to relax and sleep. This truly is a life changing event. Stepping into civilization is somewhat of a shock because water, electricity, and other every day commodities are so commonplace and it is very easy to forget that.
I hate to be cliche but one quote has been stuck in my head for the past two days so I will end this post with a quote and a picture.
"The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began,
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many path and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say"
Quote: Lord of the Rings Trilogy




Much Love,
Nate