What's harder than a struggle bus?

Miles: 19.5
Start time: 7:32am
End time: 7:19pm
High / Avg / Low temp: 86.1F / 71.8F / 50.4F
Relative Humidity Avg: 16.5%
Injuries: few new blisters on big toes

Today was a big day, our biggest by nearly five miles compared to our distances to date.  We started our at 8500 ft camp site, in two miles we climbed back up to 9000ft, before starting our rollercoaster ride down hill for 17 or so miles.

It was an interesting experience descending so consistently, we left near alpine conditions, with huge pine and cedars, back to the familiar desert shrubbery and sand underfoot.  The temp also steadily rose the further we went downhill, coupled with the rising temps due to time of day created some suffering, so we sought shelter under some large scenic boulder, seen here..

which was awesome, and the temp dropped 8F so that was a life saver, along with a steady breeze we nearly got cold

After 2hrs we headed back out into the heat to complete the last 10miles of the day.

The main reason we pushed so hard today wasn't really on a desire to break personal bests, but a dangerous necessity for water. 

From before our last camp site to tonight's there was no water, and we got to the water source tonight with a definite desire to drink our body weight in water

We also passed the 200 mile marker today, which was would have been more exciting if we weren't on a life and death mission to get to the water source, but laying here with a gallon of clear fresh water to drink reflecting on the day, it's pretty awesome to strike off 200 miles off of the todo list

It's late now, well past hiker midnight, with our energy spent and bodies rent we are going to pass out, but with the fly off our tent to watch the stars a bit