On Friday

It rained quite a lot that night.. a lot of lightening too. Not really what you would expect for the area.. but then again I was still in the basin.
I continued on for my first real day of hiking. My pack weighed a lot by the way. I was carrying about 3 gallons of water, enough food for 4 days, a tent, a sleeping back, and other miscellaneous gear. Anyways, the first day wasn't that bad even though my pack weighed the most then. I hiked up to a higher point on the East side of the basin and then back down and out of it. As I left the mountains, the flora was evidently changing with fewer and fewer trees as I entered Juniper Canyon.

I then exited the canyon and entered the real scrubland outside of the mountains. It was still cloudy this day so it wasn't that bad though. At one point there was a short rain shower that resulted in a rainbow as well.

As evening approached I reached the Dodson Trail, the most exposed and considered to be the most difficult part of the trip. I hiked along it for about about two hours and then set up for camp. During this short part of the trail I began to have some minor difficulties with finding the trail. Twice I went off of it for a bit, but each time I realized there was something wrong and turned back. The trails here were difficult to follow because the rangers themselves hadn't been here since the spring when it was cooler and hadn't been working on them. They could still be followed though if paying enough attention and spotting rock cairns.
When I made camp my shoulders were beginning to become quite sore from the heavy pack, but not injured, and this was relatively normal for me anways. So I slept again. Another slight sprinkle that night, and then the clouds mostly left for the rest of the trip.