It was like 38 degrees today. Maybe 40. My god.

We left Ridgecrest at 8am. After eating our continental breakfast and talking to other hikers (Smiles, Galfalf and others), we got a ride to trail from Ronaldo (Ro) and got hiking.

It’s so frickin hot. And we have a long water carry (like 12 or 13 miles?). I should have camel’d up more.

We are also carrying our new Bears Ears so have to get used to those and unfortunately it means we are carrying bear cans. We don’t have to here but we got this before KMS to avoid spending more time in KMS than necessary. But a bear can is an extra 2 lbs. Thankfully Secret also has his new pack and is carrying his own water and Gatorade (about 2 L of fluids). So that helps. It also helps him drink more which he will need today.

We didn’t really see anyone today on trail. A few people in the morning (we got a ride with another hiker too) and two day hikers and a thru hiker taking a shade break.

Today felt like dry, hot climbs on shale. It was definitely feeling more mountainous at times but nearly no shade and no water.

The kids did great.

Secret was generally in a good mood.

Lil Flier had a runny nose the last couple days and we gave her Tylenol last night but today she’s doing much better. She’s happy and her nose is much less congested and her temperature is normal now. She did get a bit upset near the end of the day as we tried to get to camp – she wanted down and wanted milk.

We are cowboy camping on an unmarked site. It’s not bad. Pretty big. Wind break. Buggy lol.

I’m sleeping now on a foam pad. Hoping this feels okay. I’ve done it occasionally on this trip by trading spots with Party City but it’s hit or miss if my hip hurts the next day.

We need to get going quick tomorrow morning to beat the heat. Our water source is 4.5 miles away and we drank more water today than anticipated. Secret has enough but I think Party City and I have less than a litre each. Which is doable if it’s cool. Painful if it’s hot. And it gets hot at like 9am.