panamintcity

Boy am I out of shape! I finally made it back to Panamint City, and what a workout it was.
Maybe it was that Shawn and I left San Diego Saturday Night at 8:30 PM. And then made it to the trailhead at 1:30 am Sunday morning, only to sleep in the back of the 4Runner till 4:00 am before hitting the trail.
The first mile was hiked in the dark with the sun coming up just before we made it to Limekiln Springs. I spent a few minutes crawling back into the spring to take some pictures, but unfortunately I have yet to master my new digital camera and half the pictures are fuzzy.
We then went on to Brewery spring, were we took a break. I fell asleep for about twenty minutes only to be awakened by some guys coming down the trail talking. This not only woke me up but freaked me out! So to make up for it as the first guy ducked under the bushes that grow around the spring where we were sitting, I yelled real loud"YOU JUST FREAKED THE HELL OUT OF ME!" This in turn gave him the same reaction I had just moments prior. Soon we were all laughing and after a brief discussion they went on their way.
We continued up the trail and by this time I was already feeling the hike taking its toll on my old bones(all 28 years of them). With only a mile or so left to go Shawn handed over the one pack that we shared (only going for the day we didn't need to bring much with us). We were to take turns carrying it, but he ended up carrying it most the way up and all the way down the canyon.
We made it to the Hilton and were met by a couple that were on their anniversary and appeared to be having a really great time. We talked with them for a while, sharing secrets of some of the places we have seen and other things we promised not to mention to anyone else.
We were soon joined by a lone hiker who had been hiking all over the Panamints during the week. He was one hardy soul and was truly dedicated to what he was doing. I was most impressed.
After a while everyone went their own way and Shawn and I went inside the Hilton to partake in the fine sleeping accommodations.
I was to worn out to sleep so I got up and took a few pictures outside.After a while Shawn got up and we decided to take a look at the water tank and supply lines for the towns water that has not been working for some time now.We were to lazy to walk up to where the tank was so we instead went over to check out things at the hippie cabin. From there we hit the trail back to the 4Runner.
The hike back to the trail head seemed to last all day.We made it to the 4Runner by I think about 4:00PM.
We then headed to Ballarat for some ice cold water only to find out that their ice had all melted.So we pushed on to Trona for gas and drinks at Texaco. Then on home we went.