Day 36 – Thursday, June 29

PCT Mile 596.5 to PCT Mile 623.5
Day Total: 27.0 miles

Last night was the best night of sleep I've had on the trail. I was exhausted last night. Plus it was windy and the leaves on the trees above us created the perfect white noise for sleeping. 

We had about a mile of climbing up from the pass and then four more meandering up miles to Robin Bird Spring where we got water. We filtered enough to hike 14 miles to a road crossing where we knew some past PCT hikers maintained a large water cache. 

Water caches are fantastic, but the Pacific Crest Trail Association strongly recommends not relying on them because you would be in a tough spot if they run out of water. So I'm always a little wary of water caches, but thankfully this one had more than a hundred gallons. 

We decided to cook dinner (mashed potatoes and a bag of taco rice) at the water cache so we wouldn't have to carry extra water for dinner. It was also a pretty hot and exposed section of trail, so cooking dinner also meant waiting to hike the next shade-less section until it was a little cooler. 

We hiked a beautiful seven miles after dinner, as the sun set over mountainous ridges off to the west. We found a nice little campsite tucked behind a big Joshua tree and quickly got into the tent. We hiked 27 miles today, our longest day yet. It's such a treat to be able to hike all day without having to take a desert-induced mega-siesta. It makes me excited for the next few days.