Lander’s Camp to CS630 – 6-10

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Part of the long, dry trail

We started on the 42-mile dry stretch, and I thought back to the advice my haircutter gave me in Alpine: “You can go a month without food, don’t worry about food. But water…”

You’d think such a dry trail would be devoid of life, but there are many desert-adapted plants and animals that can go quite some time between drinks. Rather than the rolling sand dunes and saborro cactuses that people tend to expect in the desert, there were many trees and flowing plants that ignored my haircutter’s advice.

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These flowers dropped their petals -- crispy and dry -- in heaps. The plant was common, so the trail here had a purple carpet at times.
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The trees didn't seem to care about a few months with no water
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The ubiquitous yucca was here, too. This one pointed us back to Mexico.

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As trail angel Siri had said, there was a large water cache at mile 615, making this desert much easier on us than on the dessicated flowers. But, as luck would have it, just as we were finishing filling up our water reserves, Siri’s familiar grey SUV pulled up. He gave us crisp, cold Pepsi and snacks, and we chatted about the conveniences of hut hiking, such as they have in Norway.

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He also gathered and carried out trash
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Enough water that the class of 2016 won't go thirsty

Past 615, it got drier and more tumbleweed-heavy, conforming to a desert stereotype.

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An archetypal desert tentsite
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A desert panorama
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A desert vista

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Even way out here, though there was evidence of human activity, in the form of an abandoned gold mine. I stood on the edge and looked in, and couldn’t see the bottom. But, with appropriate settings on my camera, i could see to the bottom..

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Oddly accessible. Surely somebody must've been down there recently?
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The second shaft was less accessible
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The wooden shelter for the mine shaft was intact, but upside-down and downhill. But, what's that in the background?

Between the two shafts, somebody had taken the time to abandon a school bus out here.

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The wheels on this bus no longer go round and round

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In the distance, there was an abandoned truck downhill. Further uphill, there was an abandoned ’60s Cadillac.

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In the distance, you can see an abandoned truck. It seems that car-abandoners worked harder in the'60s.

Further down the trail, we reached mile 630, a road crossing with the next water cache. About a dozen hikers were camped here, so they’d have access to water all night. We set up here too. And why not? The sun was setting over the mountains westward.

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A 5-star sunset.
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And here's the view where I brushed my teeth