Day 5 - Matt

The day started in Julian. I was wide awake at 6:00am and felt guilty for sleeping in a bed. It wasn't even a good sleep. Jenn was having shoes mailed to her and we had a resupply box coming we still didn't need but we'd dig through it for our favorite snacks anyways. The morning went by slow, but we had nowhere to be. The plan was to take a zero day but I couldn't commit to it and i think that feeling of anxiety rubbed off on Jenn too. By noon we were packed up and ready to hit the trail but we had one more stop to make. Mom's bakery serves free lunch to thru hikers. They asked for my permit and I told them I didn't have one. The cashier said my pack was payment enough and I thanked him for that. It was a half decent turkey sandwich, can of coke, and bottle of apple cider. After lunch we walked to the edge of town to hitch a ride back to scissors crossing 12 miles down the hill. A nice lady named Cathy picked us up who shared with us stories of her travels, family, newly acquired fixer-upper, and how she'd summitted Mt Whitney 4 times. At the crossing we hopped out and scampered down the sand embankments, stepping over barbedwire and tumbleweed. Under the highway a small group of hikers sank into the cool sand. We refilled the cooler with a 12 of BudLight and what was left of the apple cider and shed our packs to kill some time while the heat of the day burned off. Ahead of us was the San Felipe mountain range which was a gnarled network of switchbacks that pierced pass after pass. Our goal was Third Gate where trail legend told of the most amazing water cache ever. It'd be a smaller day for us at 15 miles. We headed out at 2:30 and made our way up out of the desert, coming face to face with moutain ranges we'd overcome just yesterday. The singletrack butted up against steep red mountains and hugged each of its contours. As we went up, the sun went down. We reached Third Gate at 8:00pm where pods of hikers set camp within the clearings between cacti. The cache was a quarter mile downhill from camp and well worth the effort. Stacked atop this moutain range, tucked under the shade of those random desert trees was a pyramid of Crystal Gyser bottles 20 cases wide and at least 6 tall. We refilled our bottles and bodies and set camp for the night about 300 yards away. It was the warmest nigh yet. Jenn and I shared chicken fajitas in t-shirts under the moonlight. We left the rainfly off the tent and stared at stars until our eyes closed.

Matsfro