Wanted to get as much of the next section done early in the morning before the heat and so I got up early to begin the walk to the next water source which was TylerHorse Canyon. As it turns out I am really glad I started early because it was another hot day and there was no shade. Much of the walk is through and around wind turbine farms. Here are some early morning pictures

I have seen a couple rattle snakes along the trail but only have this one picture. He saw me before I saw him but he let we walk by without striking.

It is a big (600 feet) descent into Tylerhorse Canyon and as I am doing it I can not see any signs of water down there. I was getting a bit anxious when I finally got a glint off a small stream of water. So I load up with water but it is now about 10 and getting hot and so I start looking for shade to wait out the heat. There is 1 tree in this canyon large enough for shade.

As the day goes on there are about 20 hikers cheek to cheek to try to stay in the shade of this tree. Among them are “Just Keep Walking”, “Rock City”, “Night Walker”, “Stubbs”, and “SingleMalt”. Since they basically left a day before me, I am not sure how this happened but I am happy to see them. We all just rest and talk under the tree. Every now and them getting up and moving our stuff to shift to where the shade is.

The plan is to start walking again at 7 pm. The plan is that I will also join and walk with them for the night walk. They indicate they are slow and evidence would suggest they are right as I keep catching them. However none of them are injured :). We start walking and the section is a lot of up and down and one particular down section was very dangerous for me. In the night, I had no depth perception and this was a steep downhill with the mountain on one side and a death fall on the other. Most of the time the trail is cut into the mountain and is a level path. This however was a sandy section and the trail was slanted to the death fall side. Without depth perception it was hard for me to tell where to step. I took it VERY VERY slow. Right after the descent (that I survived) was a step ascent and I was slow. They were all way ahead of me and after 5 miles they stopped for a rest and waited for me. I could tell that SingleMalt was not all that happy and had been there for a long time waiting for me. When I arrived, they waited about 2 minutes and started up again. Most of them has been waiting for 30 or more minutes and were ready to go. So in this type of dynamic the slowest person really never gets any rest. Went for another 2 hours or so and they waited again. This time I told them to just go on and not wait for me. I was slowing them down too much and I would see them down the trail. They took my advice and I did not see them the rest of the night. About 1:30 in the morning, I found a good camping spot and again cowboy camped under the stars. It was great. I have now become of fan of not using the tent unless it is necessary because of weather. The nights are just too beautiful.