Day 3

Woke up to the mountain sun beaming five feet from our tent. Does this mean its going to be a hot day? Most definitely. Check out the umbrella. Life saver.

So after six miles of trudging thru the Colorado desert, we made it to a volunteer fire station to rehydrate our shriveled up lizard heads. We must've drank half of a water tanks worth of water! Not really, but it felt like it. 

And then this is what happened. 

Our destination was to hike approximately 12 miles today. Guess what? We hiked another 9 hours today and it was more than 12. It was 14. And why? Because there was NO WATER at the proposed " streams". Thanks sun!  But here are some photos of the day...

Finally, we reached a magical oasis of trickling water. It was a Barbie-sized creek that was about an inch and a half deep. We could barely submerge our pinky toes. But, it was still amazing. 

Even more amazing, a campsite all to ourselves under the tundra of pine trees! We could barely  put our tent up, our bodies were worked. Took a power nap only to be woken up by huge droplets of rain splashing into our tent. Pippy came to the rescue while Zippy barked orders like she was incapable of helping.

Last but not least, our trail buddies sent important messages home on our satellite phone. 

Time for bed at 8,000 ft elevation. Don't attempt jumping jacks up here, just saying.