Saturday April 26, 19.6mi/31.5km

Sheephole Tan Hill (222.5/2780ft) to Calumet Mine (242.1/790ft) (CA)

I started hiking just before 7am and finished off the little bit of uphill hiking that remained.

There was a little pass at the top, which I wouldn’t have even noticed except the guidebook mentioning it. The descent was down a rocky wash at first, which pretty quickly gave way to a nice smooth sandy wash.

After a couple hours, the wash ended and I just hiked in a straight line xc, on a surface called desert pavement.

As I progressed further north, the terrain got pretty flat and windy, and there was even some blowsand.

That soft sand was slow to walk through, so I was pleased to see the desert pavement return.

Up close:

I stopped for lunch in the shade of a large Creosote bush, which was the only shade around for miles. After lunch I had more of the soft blowsand. This area had a cool texture, pretty similar to the roof of a dog’s mouth.

In the distance I could see some clouds building.

Today I passed by 6 trashed balloons, most days I see two or three. I try to pack them out if I can easily get to them, but really the solution is to stop buying these balloons, they just become trash.

I also passed by this strange marker in the middle of the wilderness.

This section isn’t really mountainous, but it does have some very long views.

Looking North, ahead to the Marble Mountains, where I will be hiking tomorrow.

The afternoon had turned really windy, so I decided to stop and camp early, behind the last remaining hill. If I had continued hiking North, the terrain looked perfectly flat and with no vegetation, so no wind protection for my tent.