Monday, June 1, 2026
34.2 miles, 4380′ gain/4642′ loss.
Max altitude: 7800′
I was up at 5:15am and hiking by 5:45am. It didn’t get cool overnight and so I didn’t sleep soundly. I started my morning descending to the floor of the desert, in the shade for part of an hour, for the only time that entire day. I chatted on the phone with a few friends first thing in the morning, and then switched between podcasts and audiobooks to keep my attention focused elsewhere.
The day quickly heated up, hitting more than 100 degrees. The terrain was tough, with prickly cactus and grasses, rocks and loose gravel as the trail climbed sharply up and down mesas and in and out of washes all day long. There were very long waterless stretches, with water only available at water caches (mile 16.7; mile 34). And the water in the reused plastic jugs had baked in the sun, absorbing plastic flavor and the water was already very chlorine-heavy to begin with. The water was hot when I got it, and it only got hotter as I hiked in the sun. This had me considering making water bottle cozies out of Tyvek to keep the water from getting quite so hot in the sun.
I saw prairie dogs, a hare, and some lizards over the course of the day. I hid for 5-10 minutes at a time in what little shade I could find in the heat of the day, and barely survived. There was so little water available, and I felt the pressure to not take more than my fair share at the caches. And drinking hot chlorine plastic water when my stomach was already a bit off from the heat was tough. I also didn’t want to carry 5-6L at a time, though I probably should have. I underestimated how much water I needed in the punishing heat. I drank more than 9L over the course of the day and I was still dying.
I pushed to get to the water cache at mile 34 before hiking a few more tenths to set up camp. I probably should have taken another L of water but I was understandably exhausted and not thinking straight. I stopped at 9:15pm and set up camp on a flat spot on the side of the trail.
Transcending Mountains 