There's my tent, I'm back home and ready to settle in for the evening
It has been a long and enjoyable day in the desert, out hiking for a bit over six hours. I consumed all of the 3.5 litres of water that I brought with me and could have drank more (maybe I should have tried to filter some water out of that old well after all). I also ate three Clif bars.
After dark, I make another instant hiker meal, which is Backpacker's Pantry Thai Satay Beef. I hadn't tried this one before, so I'm skeptical about the little pouches of salted peanut butter (I usually only like unsalted) that need to be mixed separately with the spices. It makes a very flavourful rice-based meal that is a bit heavier in the saddlebags and more expensive than many others.
As soon as the sun goes down, the temperature drops a bit and within an hour it's time to put on a sweater.
The beautiful silence is occasionally decorated by gusts of wind forcing my tent to flap its wings, or the rumble of a train labouring up Kelso-Cima Road three miles down the hill.
Late in the evening, it can't be warmer than 60 degrees, and the moon rises. I step outside in the silence under the influence of a few swigs of brandy to ponder it for a few minutes before going to bed. Bliss.
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