Day 36 Sat May 24

Hiking by 0530, 13 miles to Mojave, putting on the wet shoes wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was a cold morning, I had 5 layers on top (all the top layers I'm carrying) and my wool hat and nice wet gloves. Up, up, up we climbed, into the snowy mountains, the wind was so cold, but we soon warmed up and took a few layers off. A dirtbiker was playing around in the snow last night and made an absolute mess of the trail. We were now walking in 4-5 inches of snow mixed with mud and once the sun started warming things up- yuck! We were able to walk alongside the trail on top of the snow without falling through for awhile, but eventually things softened up and snow kept going in our shoes! We made it back down to 4,000 feet and to the road (where everything was dry and snow free) and caught a ride into Mojave and right to the post office. Picked up 2 letters (one from the fam and one from Gram and Papa) and 2 care packages! One care package from Pilgrim who wanted to spice things up for us with "curry in a hurry", some thai meals, asian noodles and trail mix and Lindt chocolate (which never actually makes it to the trail because we eat it so quickly!) Thanks again Pilgrim!! I love the surprise of a care package and you just never know what you'll find inside. The other care package from Priscilla with what she says are homemade cookies (but they are the same ones she mailed last time and tried to pass off as homemade, so I'm not so sure if they are store bought or really homemade!) Either way- we loved them! Thanks! Some lipton side meals, instant potatoes and spices which are staples out here for us. A small bar of soap which I'm sure was a joke, but it'll come in handy, so I'm going to carry it. A familiar looking deodorant from Christen, which I know was a joke and I'm not carrying! Thanks for the thought. And many other snacks and treats that we will eat over the next 94 miles to Onyx. Anyway- then we walked the 1 mile to Motel 6 and being Memorial Day weekend and a Saturday, we thought we'd be paying tons of money for a room, but it was very reasonable and we quickly moved in and spread out all our wet gear. (the tent, fly, groundsheet, sleeping bags, packs) basically everything we were carrying was either wet or damp. Then we showered, went to the library and checked email/updated blog as much as possible, and picked up some bars (cliff, powerbar, nature valley, luna, odwalla, etc) per day. So the next stretch to Onyx is 94 miles (roughly 4 1/2 days of walking) so we needed 32 bars between the both of us. Then Chief and Wasa showed up at the motel and we all went out (across the street) for spaghetti and meatballs.