The Final Day!

the total mileage was 37.3 miles

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We woke up at 6:30 AM hoping to get an early start so that we could get out early and pick up our fallen frenchman!  We pushed pretty hard on the last day and were all pretty tired of the desert.  Donna hiked out with slippers because her boots were giving her blisters.

There's not much to say about this day.  Still didn't see anything interesting.  Breakfast was oatmeal and bagels.  Lunch was tuna with crackers.

We finally made it out around 2:00 PM.  The six of us piled into the Camry and drove back to the north entrance.  We picked up the truck and headed to the Sunset motel to find Bertrand.  Everything we according to plan and we eventually got back to Claremont around 5:00 PM.  We had dinner at Patty's Mexican restaurant where we sat together and recounted on the adventure.  Burritos were great and we had a good time just hanging out and laughing at the various funny times during our camping. 

this sign was at Black Rock Canyon

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Overall synopsis: It was a good hike for us beginners.  None of us had ever done a multi-day hike and had no clue what it entailed.  The scenery was boring.  It was WAY colder than we had expected or prepared for.  We probably could have gone each day with less water and therefore been weighed down less.  We drank about 3/4 of a gallon of water each day.  And that's only because we felt like we HAD to drink that much in order to lighten our load.  I will probably never return to Joshua Tree because of how...desolate and monotonous it was.  But I enjoyed my time with my friends and it was relaxing to be away from HMC.  Hope you enjoyed hearing about it!