On the trail by 6:10 there was a climb immediately, I think the trail went straight uphill because it was passing through private land and hikers have access only to 10 feet on either side.
Once we crested the top we were in beautiful oak and pine meadows where a group of cows stood staring at us with grass hanging from their mouths!
Our goal this morning is Robin Bird Spring 6 miles from our campsite. The PCT joined an old dirt road deeply rutted and strewn with rocks. This is where we marked our 600th mile on the trail!
We passed a few private land holdings, one that said "no trespassing, armed surveillance". Hmmm.
The spring had a nice trickle from a pipe in the ground and we got good water for the next few miles. The forest we came through next was beautiful with ponderosa pine that smelled like vanilla, oak trees and huge boulders.
We chose a shady spot and rested for 3 hours moving as the sun changed position and sometimes using the umbrellas to create our own pool of shade. When it was cooler we continued hiking arriving at a road that had access to water 3/10ths of a mile away. It was a fire fighting camp with a storage tank full of collected spring water. We could use the run off water for our needs so we each took 2.5 L. The trail climbed out of this pretty forest into an old burn area with bleached white dead trees among huge boulders.
It was quite beautiful but I was glad we were coming through at the end of the day, it was still plenty warm.
I am increasingly concerned with my lack of stamina, is it because of too few calories? Have I reached my physical limit? Whatever is happening I'm coming to think more and more of stopping, I know that's not what I truly want but the daily draining of energy with each uphill step is no fun.
5/31/14 14.5 miles
Hiking by 6:10 we traveled down through boulders, fir, pine and oak trees when we suddenly came out into the desert. Everything in our vision was miles and miles of desert. It was almost scary and certainly daunting as we stepped out into it. There could be a water cache in a mile or so, we hadn't planned on it but were really hoping it was there.
By 8:00am we had come to the empty cache, put on our big girl faces (it was a huge blow to find it empty, we now knew we couldn't count on the next one that we hoped would break up the 30 mile dry section coming up). We put our umbrellas up and started off in the growing heat, it was only 8am and we each had 1 L of water. Willow Spring was our definite destination. It was 1.8 miles one way off the trail down a gully and over 2-3 boulder scrambles. Then a walk across the desert toward the only green trees on the horizon, willow trees, which mean water. As we stood at the gully in the sun discussing the wisdom of going off trail I had a moment of despair, I didn't think once I got down the gully that I had the stamina to get back out if we couldn't navigate the boulders. It was a heck of a time for me to unload on Peggy but for a couple of minutes we had a "how do you really feel?" conversation. She came up with 2-3 things we could change and we put them into action right then, then off we went down the gully blindly hoping we could navigate the off-trail descent to water. It started out easy, then scrambling over rocks, then some places where we had to take off backpacks to get down more easily. 
We got out onto the desert floor and made a beeline for the willow trees where there was shade and water.
A family of quail was tucked into the rushes, babies protected from the elements, but I scared them and a flurry of tiny feathered puffballs flew away to the furthest edge of the rushes.
We stayed here holed up from 11-5:30. We napped, read books and each of us collected 5 L of water. Two guys came in, one from The Dalles, Oregon and one young asian man, he said "My name is Godzilla, I'm from Japan". I had to smile, "Of course you're from Japan" I said!
He was such a nice young man and Peggy and he traded information about how he could put together his own meals. Something that would taste better to him than snack food from the markets at each resupply town. He'd told us that he was counting on the next water cache but had gotten to the top of the pass and read a note in the dirt, "Cache dry get H2O at Willow". He'd used a 4 wheel track to come down to the spring and assured us we could go back that way, cutting off 6 miles of winding PCT trail. He said "I leave signs for you". He left the spring before we did by about an hour. We had dinner, topped off our water (which alone weighted 10#) and started hiking at 6:00. Sure enough, Godzilla had dragged his hiking poles behind him plus had made arrows at intervals, showing us the way to go. What a kid! We hiked up to the intersection of the PCT and followed his arrows (also checking our own maps and GPS) then made 6 more miles in the much cooler evening hours.
The sun was setting when we found the perfect bush to shield our tents from wind, snugged in by 8:45 and asleep soon after.
(Now whenever we see marks of poles being dragged we smile and say Godzilla was here!)
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