Whipping Wind and Rain in the Desert

This morning we slept in at the room until around 8:30am. Then I started to get packed up and ready to go. Sparkle and James checked out of their room and then headed across the street to us. Then all of us walked down the street together to grab some breakfast and hike out of town.

The gas station right down the street from the motel had some of the best Mexican food that I’ve ever had. I got a potato and chorizo burrito and everyone else got some food too. Before we left, I even got another burrito to go. Then we began walking through town on our way out of Cuba. I had to stop at store to get flavor packets and toothpaste. But then we were on our way.

A mural that we passed on the way out of town.

When we were walking through town, I saw an orange Subaru and knew that it had to be Nana Man. We ran over to his car and in fact it was him. It was so nice to see him again! It had been a while. We talked to him for a bit and then we continued road walking out of town.

Nana man!

The walk out of town was ridiculously windy, which definitely got old after a while. But I was just happy to be road walking at all. We walked for an hour or two and then finally passed by a really small hill which looked like a good wind break. This was a perfect opportunity to sit and take a breather away from the wind. I had packed out a Coke from town so I cracked it and drink it there. Then we hung out for a little bit longer before we kept on walking.

Drinking a coke on the side of a road walk.

A photo of me standing over a high point on the trail.

Even though the wind was pretty annoying for those next couple of hours, the views were incredible. There were tons of really unique rock structures along the trail. The trail has changed a lot in just the last hundred or so miles. We walked by a really cool cave with a huge drop off. Then continued walking along sandy trail for hours after that.

Syrup posing with a cool rock.

At some point, the wind was so bad that sand was getting blasted into my eyes. I had to put my sunglasses on and cover my face with my bandanna to keep the sand out of my mouth and face as much as possible. That was probably the most annoying thing about the wind. There were a couple moments where the wind picked up so fast that it whipped rocks and dirt at me. I turned my back to the wind and it shot sand and rocks all across my bare legs. It burned and I was surprised how bad it hurt. That went on for maybe 10 or 20 seconds until the wind calm down again. It never picked up like that again over the course of the day.

Syrup hanging his legs over the side of this cool cliff cave.

Walking up to the side of a cliff.

A couple hours after our first break of the day, we went past a large boulder which was another good wind break. We decided this would be a nice place to stop to take a quick break again. I really wanted to eat something and get out of the wind for a moment. This also gave Sparkle and James an opportunity to catch up to us.

Sparkle, James, and myself packing up from our break.

The landscapes today have been incredible.

It has been pretty cold and a little bit rainy over the course of the day. I wore my rain gear basically for the entire day thus far. When we left this next break spot, we had another handful of miles to go to the next water source. This water source was also going to be the last water source for the night. Rather than camping by the source, we figured we would just fill up and walk a little bit further for the day.

Some amazing rock structures that we passed by today.

We came to the next water source after about an hour or so. I was shocked to see about four tents set up a little ways away from the water. It was still pretty early, but I understood wanting to camp by the water. It definitely isn’t always fun to dry camp. This water source in particular was really hard to get water from. It was such a slow trickle into a really shallow puddle. It took so long to fill up a couple of liters. But I had to get a bunch of water because we are going another six or so miles tonight. Then we’ll have, another 10 or so miles in the morning to get to that next water source. It’s not the longest water carry ever, but it is a bit of a carry.

Sparkle lost her rain jacket just in time for 3 continuous days of rain. So she’s rocking this poncho now!

We stayed at this water source for a while as all of us tried to fill up as much as we could. It took so long to fill up. We were there for a long time. After a while, we decided to pack up and keep on walking. Because we’re 15 miles from the next water source the hope was to maybe cut that number in half tonight. That way we don’t have too much to do in the morning to get to water.

Jones Canyon Spring, our last water source of the day.

The next couple hours weren’t so bad. Eventually the wind calmed down a little bit, which was great. But after a while, we could feel a storm starting to roll in. There is some really bad weather in the forecast over the next few days. I am hoping and feel optimistic that I won’t be too terrible. But we’re certainly expecting some rain.

After walking for an hour, the rain finally started. Initially, it was fairly light. But then within 10 or so minutes the rain got really heavy. It was so windy that I wasn’t able to hike with my umbrella out. That meant that I was getting pretty soaking wet. Even though I had a rain jacket on and rain pants, the rain was so heavy that it wasn’t doing much.

A photo of me walking the trail up ahead of everyone.

Around this time we started looking for campsites so that we could get set up. It just seemed like the rain was going to keep continuing on forever. But I wasn’t seeing anything great for camping and I wanted to find a site that wasn’t too low. Just in case it rains a lot and water pools in the area. I don’t really know what to expect in the desert. But assumptivley, rain in the desert can lead to pooling and flooding.

Syrup definitely wanted to stop for the day so I started trying to find a spot. In the end we found a decently flat site to get set up. It was pretty low lying, though, which made me a bit nervous. And the ground was so incredibly sandy. But at this point, the rain was just starting to pick up pretty heavy again. So we decided to try to get set up there.

The sun beginning to set, and some dark clouds rolling in.

I was scrambling at this point and trying to get my tent set up. The rain was coming down super hard. But the ground was so soft and sandy that my stakes wouldn’t stay in. I wound up having to really hammer them into the ground with a rock. But then they were in so far that the pitch of my tent was not ideal. And the ground was ridiculously lumpy so my tents bathtub was certainly not set up right. If it rained too heavily I was going to get pretty wet.

It took me an insane amount of time to get my tent up. And I’m a person that can get a tent up ridiculously fast. But the stakes kept coming out and I had to do the same thing over and over again. I wound up switching spots and then still had to find a rock to hammer the stakes in. In the end, the pitch was pretty trash, but I was happy to get inside and start to get dry. My rain gear was super wet though so I had to find a place to put that. And we had set up in a giant pile of sand, so everything I owned was covered in sand. That was pretty nightmarish. It could have been worse though!

Once I got in dried my tent out. Then put my rain gear in my vestibule. It all worked out just fine. About an hour later Sparkle and James walked by and they joined us at camp. The spot wasn’t the worst, but it certainly wasn’t the best. I did some writing in my tent and ate something. Then eventually called it a night. It wound up raining on and off all night. But somehow my tent didn’t really leak too much water. Even though the pitch I had was terrible.