After the tough day the day prior we were thrilled when the canyons we followed the next day were wider and flatter allowing for easy walking and navigating. As we drank water during the day our packs got lighter as well. We continued to leap frog with Jen and Dan and enjoyed conversations with them along the way. The easier walking continued this way for a short stretch and we found ourselves making bigger 20+ mile days.

As we reached a network of dirt roads near where we had hidden our next cache we began to see cars, one of which stopped to talk with us, recognizing us as Hayduke hikers. It turned out he lived and worked in the area and often provided drinks and fruit for the few hikers he saw each year. To further demonstrate his status as a trail angel he then pulled out a box of freshly baked doughnuts and offered us each one. We were stunned and thrilled. We chatted for awhile longer and he told us of the dinosaur bones they had been digging in the area. It turned out they had recently found some T-Rex bones as well as a Steratops skull all of which were to be lifted out by a huge helicopter the following day. After wishing us luck on the trail he drove off leaving us with amazing images of flying dinosaur bones and sticky fingers from our sweet goodies.

We took a mid-day break at a popular arch and trailhead where we were able to get some water from kind day trippers and eat our lunch at a picnic table. From there we had about 24 miles to our next food cache. We headed back on our route and decided we wanted to make big miles for the day. Around sunset we stopped to put on some layers, make a couple of energy drinks which we mixed with the vodka we had been carrying and decorated ourselves with tons of glow sticks which we had also been carrying around for awhile. We were re-energized from the cocktails and silliness and walked long into the night making camp only a morning hike from our cache.