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MTN^Alex

Day 12 3/28 A Tadpole and an Eagle

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Day 12 3/28 A Tadpole and an Eagle


I slept in a little bit today (9:30, that used to be getting up early for me!) I didn't sleep much last night with my tent whipping around in the wind. Got packed up and Joe and I continued on through the dry San Felipe Hills. Most of the morning was spent hiking through bushes as the trail is really overgrown in parts- can anyone tell me why there's so many ticks in the desert?!? I must have flicked 50 of them off today!
We hit the hundred mile mark a little before noon and made a little 100 out of stones and shared one of my sacred and much revered handisnack cheese and crackers to celebrate.
Water was definitely on our minds as theres not much in the area. Barrel springs, one of the main places to fill up today was NASTY. At least the source tank was. There were waterbugs in it and growths that I didn't recognize and things decomposing in it. We filled a bottle just in case it came down to that-luckily it didnt and there was a cache right after.THANK YOU SO MUCH whoever put that water cache there.
But seriously the water was so nasty I saw Joes bottle had a tadpole in it- he took a swig just to say he did.
We came down from the dry hills into what seemed like heaven- miles of grassland prairie and cattle pasture- it was so peaceful to walk through fields like that and just hear the breeze and the crickets. We came to eagle rock (which seriously looks like an eagle, way more than any other "this or that rock") and Joe set up camp for the night and I continued on. The prairie turned into beautiful anncient oaks and sucamores, it reminded me of 100 acre wood from the Winnie the Pooh cartoon. I set up camp at mile 109 on a little beach next to a creek. Tonight Im gonna sleep way better- instead of high winds threatening to pull my tent stakes out of the ground, ill sleep to sounds of crickets, frogs and a babbling brook . It makes me think of those sound generating machines people buy. Except this is free. And real.


Check out the mtn lion and deer track I saw today below! Also saw an Indian grinding stone, or metaté!

Updated 04-05-2012 at 13:34 by MTN^Alex

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  1. oldnevada's Avatar
    I don't know about the West Coast, but for the east, ecologist's and entomologists predicting very high tick populations this year. One factor mentioned is that the mouse population has boomed considerably due to large acorn harvest, which is an important vector for the Blacklegged Tick anyway. Forget my source. Sorry. If I find it, will re-post here. http://lymediseaseguide.org/lyme-dis...ortheastern-us
    Updated 04-05-2012 at 16:10 by oldnevada