Day 47 : Uranium Spring

5th June 2013
Mile 651 to mile 676 : Walker Pass Campground to the second hill climb before Kennedy Meadows.
Mileage : 25
This time it was our turn to be up early, or at least Pan and i were. Both of us struggle in the heat, more so than the others it seems so we set off early to at least get the climbs done before the heat set in.
We managed to get into the water source just after 11am, and proceeded to wait out the sun. The spring we were at is called the Joshua tree spring. The Joshua tree is ostensibly a desert tree (although I'm not sure it is actually a tree strictly speaking) and it annoyed me to see it around the spring as we should really be approaching the high mountains by now an not be seeing cacti, Joshua trees, rattlesnakes or anything else of hat ilk, but clearly the desert doesn't want to let go of us just yet it would seem. According to the locals the spring has another unofficial name :  Uranium spring, as it is apparently is found in the water. I was skeptical though it must be said. Over the next hour or so the area found the spring filled up with other hikers all escaping the heat. We all tried to get some sleep, knowing that in order to compensate for having taken several hours off during the day we must hike long into the night, but even with the shade it was too hot to sleep. Finally though it was cool enough to carry on, and off we went into the evening. 6 hours later saw me camping on my own having lost the others in the night and trying not to think about bears as i went to sleep.
A pair of hikers about half an hour ahead had had a run in with a cub ambling along the trail. While cubs themselves pose no threat, the still scare people as cubs are never alone. One small yelp from the cub having spotted a smelly hiker is enough to bring mum crashing through the woods at high speed to come to the rescue of her cub. If you have the misfortune to be between mother and child you are in big, big trouble. It is about the only situation in which you have a really chance of being killed by a bear. Apart from the aforementioned situation black bears especially do not pose a real problem, except for the fact that they will steal your food if they can. In the next section bear canisters are required to prevent bears from getting at food. Just what i need, the extra kilo to added my rucksack along with the 7 days of food I'll be carrying is going to make the hiking difficult, difficult, lemon difficult. With all this going through my mind i fell asleep grateful of the few hours sleep before the next early start tomorrow.

This thirsty guy clearly wanted to drink at the spring, but was too spooked by all us hikers