On a different note;many of the trees we're seeing are pines, Ponderosa, Sugar & Coulter. Their cones are so different that I thought a photo would be fun to show the differences in them.
The top is Sugar, they're longer and have a stem that hooks them to the end of the branch. Bottom left is a Coulter cone, really heavy, sharp and dangerous if they fall on you. They grow on the tree limb and break off when they get too heavy, the tips curl up to a point. The right cone is a Ponderosa, smaller, sharp tips point down, they are flatter on the bottom. I enjoy seeing the different trees growing and being able to recognize them. 
Camp Glenwood I think.
Inside were bananas, apples and oranges. Such a treat, the fresh fruit was so good!
Lupine smelling like grape soda, growing in the burn.
Meanwhile:
Crossing and recrossing Hwy 2 today we came to a Boy Scout Camp where there was a spigot, water needed to be filtered so we sat in shade snacking with a few others as we filtered 2 L each.
Later crossing the Hwy for the last time we came upon Trail Magic!
The descent to Sulpher Springs began, we all needed the water, hiking down into the canyon it got hotter and hotter. We came to a tiny trail side water pool just before the actual spring and all the hikers filled up. Peggy & I got 2 L each then hiked a few yards to sit under a Ponderosa and snack, nap and wait out some of the heat. The plan is to hike in a few hours from shade spot to shade spot and try to make miles 1-2 at a time. The heat is hard to deal with. Finally at 2:00 we started out with umbrellas up. I had problems pretty quickly so we literally stopped in every decent shade we found so I could cool off. I knew if we could just get higher we'd catch breezes and get cooler. In the middle of our climb we came to a big downed tree and in the muddle of the branches and debris we lost the trail, PDB was all around us, we were surrounded by the noxious plant. Seth, our dinner companion from the Copper Canyon, came hiking by. He was trying to find a way through the PDB too. The 3 of us went different ways, Seth waved at us from above indicating he'd found a path of footprints. I followed calling for Peggy. She'd gotten into a thicket of the stuff and had brushed one side of pants & shirt up against it. We all struck out 'off road' up a hill, fighting against sand, gravel & PDB, finally reaching the top Peggy and I could look down on the actual trail, Seth was nowhere in sight. We scrambled down a gravel & sand slope fairly free of PDB until we were on the trail again. We decided to hike a short distance and stop. Having been exposed to PDB, Peggy was wanting to get the clothing off her and decide what to do now.
Uphill for about 1/2 mile we found a camp spot beside the trail with a guy named Chupacabra resting there. 
We decided to set up tents since he was moving on. Seth showed up and the two guys hiked further that evening while the two of us were beyond our level of tolerance. We had 1 L of water each for the 8.5 miles to our next water tomorrow. This was a tough day and I've been having a defeatist mental conversation with myself, that's not a good thing.
This morning the spring was within 1 mile of where we'd camped so I filtered 2 L for myself and drank 1/2 liter there. I'd been so thirsty last night. We were headed for water at the Mill Creek Fire Station. We had cool morning hiking until about 10 then it started getting hot and we deployed umbrellas. We arrived at the Fire Station in the middle of the AMGEN bicycle race, a training ride for those wanting to compete on the Tour de France. We located the faucet at the station, sat under the picnic awning and had lunch, drank up water and rinsed hair, face & hands.
I saw a Sheriff car and talked to them about the upcoming road walk we were to do next and about the weather. This reroute is around PDB and poison oak growing in the burned areas after the last fire. This is a huge burned area, as far as we can see there are skeleton trees, blackened dirt and new emerging greenery, lots of that being PDB.
Oh yeah, the weather that day was record breaking triple digits. Great.
We put up our umbrellas at 12:30 pm and ran across the road in a lull between bikes. The asphalt road was closed to vehicles and we hikers had it all to ourselves, the sheriff had told me it was 10-12 miles to the North Fork Ranger Station which was our next water source. Because the bikers could use the road there were mileage markers for about 6 miles. We stopped after 1.5 miles and rested. Then after 3 miles we had lunch, enjoying the wide views from the mountain top.
We could see the bike race below us, they looked like ants we were so far above them. Two young hikers came behind us playing music on their iPod, as they came abreast of us we started dancing around and so did they, all of us laughing and enjoying the moment, what fun! Peggy and I hiked on and up until we came to a place where we thought we could keep going and get to a campsite in 1.5 miles. This would help get us into town sooner the next day. We arrived at Messenger Flats Campground where other PCT hikers were camping also.
Today was a 17.5 mile day, we were vey happy with our progress!
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