We woke up today with the sun at 6am, so far, a normal day. What is amazing is the fact that we had packed, eaten, and gotten on the road by 7:20! This is definitely a personal best for us.
On our way out of Blythe we refilled the 4.5 gallons we normally carry for long stretches, plus Morgan carried an extra gallon strapped to her back rack. I was a little skeptical about needing so much water. Looking at how much is left at the end of the day I am thanking God that Morgan had more foresight than me! Out of the 5.5 gallons we started the day with, only 1.75 are left for cooking and our short ride into Brawley, CA tomorrow morning.
Today was HOT. There’s no way around it. The Sun blared down on us while the air stayed perfectly still. The temperature got to 105 and stayed there, but, you know, it’s a dry heat….
We passed through some of the sparsest deadest desert so far on the trip. Occasional fields of chaparral gave way to vast expanses of sand. It was fairly flat terrain though, which kept us moving. The flatness provided visibility that kept us safe given the lack of shoulder on highway 78. We saw two CH-53 Sea Stallions, and two V-22 Osprey, as well as an assortment of high flying jets racing across the sky.
The only store we passed after leaving Blythe was in the sand dunes of Glamis CA. We both enjoyed a cold soda in the shade before carrying on. The soda was a refreshing change of pace after a day of drinking water the temperature of coffee.
In all today was hard but very productive. We quickly fixed another broken spoke and patched two flat tires . Other than that we kept moving, kept drinking water, and kept being thankful that my derailleur is finally working again.
Our camp tonight is a short hike off the road on BLM land. Very secluded and peaceful with fun critters!
Route info for interested readers:
We left Blythe on some back roads, stair stepping our way to highway 78. Left off of Hobson Way onto Defrain, right on 28th, left on Neighbor. Right to cross the wooden bridge, then left at the T and the next right. Left onto Ben Hulse Hwy which merged into highway 78 for the rest of the day.
There and Back Again 