It rained/misted overnight and we awoke to a soggy, overcast day. We packed up our wet tent and set out into the surprisingly chilly morning. We had our sights set on ‘Mike’s Place’ as our midday break. Other hikers had been talking about Mike’s Place for the past couple of days, really building up just how great it would be there–burgers and beer and all that a hiker could want. I didn’t get my hopes up too much about it, but Wolf Bird decided to mock all the hype about it by spontaneously shouting ‘Mike’s Place!! Mike’s Place!! Yeah!!!’ all morning. I soon banned this cheer since it was driving me crazy.
We were walking in a cloud all morning, so we had no views. It seemed like pretty cool landscape all around us–we walked through some boulderfields and ridgelines that seemed like they’d have amazing views on a clear day. While disappointing that we didn’t get views, it was a treat to not have to worry about the heat for once!
We arrived at Mike’s Place around 11AM. He has a couple huge water tanks up the hill from his property where he allows hikers to refill their water bottles. We took advantage of this and then continued on to his actual house and yard. Yote and Nicole were already there, as were two other hikers we hadn’t met yet–a guy hiking with his two dogs and a girl Rebecca from the UK who was resting her ankle injury. Mike’s Place was quite interesting–it was a small-ish house with a pretty cluttered yard off a dirt road in the high desert of California. It didn’t appear too welcoming at first, but it turned out to be a nice oasis for us hikers.
It was pretty chilly once we stopped walking, so we cooked up some warm food and Wolf Bird made some instant coffee. Many other hikers showed up over the 3ish hours we were there. Eventually the sun even started peeking through the clouds and we all hung up our wet gear to dry. Other highlights of Mike’s Place included Wolf Bird drinking some Coors, Wolf Bird painting my toenails (the colors were his choice), and Wolf Bird being dared to eat a tortilla wrap with peanut butter and pepperoni in under 5 minutes (he failed).
We finally mustered the strength to leave the comforts of Mike’s Place and set out to hike another 10 miles to complete our day. We’d been hiking uphill all morning to Mike’s Place and continued uphill another couple of miles after leaving, only to then descend for the next 8 or so miles. We planned to camp at Tule Spring, the next water source after Mike’s Place–we tend to plan our days around water sources and like to try to camp by them so we have plenty of water to drink and cook with.
The first 7 or so miles out of Mike’s Place flew by, and the day had cleared up so it was beautiful and sunny out. I started getting a bit tired and asked Wolf Bird how much further to the spring and he told me it was only 2.2 miles. We soon found out he told me the distance to a different spot that was before the spring, and it was actually 3 point something miles to the spring. I definitely felt that extra mile and was really dragging by the time we arrived at the spring.
We had to walk downhill about a quarter mile to the spring. There was actually a cistern that apparently sometimes has water, but was empty when we got there. We had to fill from the creek below. Wolf Bird very kindly got my water for me and reported that the creek was really gross, with oil skins on the top of the water and weird colored algae. Yum! I wasn’t too worried, since on the AT I had drank out of some questionable water sources. However, once I tasted the water, I was shocked! It was SO gross. It was the worst tasting water I have ever had even after treating it with our Aquamira drops. We all joked that we felt like we were getting actively poisoned by it as we drank it…. hopefully that does not turn out to be true.
Yote and Nicole, as well as White Spot and Patrick camped near the spring in the same area as us. It was an early 7:30PM for us!