Wednesday, May 01, 2013 – 25.6 km

I love mesas, there’s something awesome about a mountain with a flat top upon which you can stroll and camp anywhere, therefore I woke up in a good mood today, looking forward to the trail. Whiterock Mesa has pretty white stone and shade, and rocks that look like dinosaur bones, and camping + lack of sunburn + dinosaurs is an epic combination.

While digging a cathole, I dug up a tiny scorpion. Aw, give me a break. Also yikes, a scorpion. Well-positioned and easy to follow cairns marked one long climb directly up a rocky slope, then the trail met a road at the beginning of Passage 26.

When loading data points into my GPS, I had missed those for Passage 26. I had trepidation about hiking without GPS, not because I thought I would need it for this passage mostly on roads, but because I’ve gotten used to having it. It’s my blankie, and you never mess with the blankie. It couldn’t be helped though, so I started off down the first road, which was dull but easy walking. The power line road was more like a trail than a road, rocky and uneven and ill-defined. Someone with a grudge against shade had butchered all the trees on either side. I was glad when the trail veered away into the forest.

I camped at Oak Spring. It had plenty of water, but somehow felt exposed and too close to civilization.