Day 41: (17.6 miles)
mile 584.4 – 602

Not a sound. Not a whisper of wind.  Did we die?  The outside of our bags are wet.  My camp towel is frozen and our packs are covered in frost.  Have we been abducted by aliens? Where are we?  We rub our eyes and look around.  Everything is where we left it the night before.  We looked at each other and then at the windmills.  None of them were turning. Could it be true?  Was the wind gone…or at least on vacation?  By golly YES it was.  Happy Freak’n Mother’s Day to me! Hurray! 

We pack up and have one of the nicest walks ever to Robin Bird Spring at mile  602.

Whoa. 600 miles!  100 miles till Kennedy Meadows!  Mexico seems so far away and so long ago. 

We walk burned forests, through ranch land and then wooded forests so green that we half expect to be greeted by a Hobbit or a Leprechaun on the trail. 

Awesome aroma!

We walk through fields of fragrant flowers, one of which we would definitely like to be able to plant in our yard; one, if we knew what it was, and two, if it would even be viable in our coastal, crappy soil, yard.  We would be much obliged to anyone who could answer those questions.  All in all it was a pleasant and relaxing day…all 17.6 miles of it. We took an extra long lunch (1 1/2 hrs) and dozed in the shade enjoying the easy hiking terrain. Fortunately we arrived at Robin Springs early and were able to get fresh cool spring water flowing down a hill and out of a pipe.  We set up camp in what appeared to be an old shed foundation. A flat and smooth surface protect from the wind on two sides by a natural hill sides with cinder block borders. After a tasty dinner we set up the tarp tent as I was cold and wanted some extra protection from the wind.  This worked great until the wind began to blow and gust in the middle of the night blowing the stakes out of the ground.  After Paul reset the stakes and anchored them with large rocks we had a pleasant restful night.