Almost done!

Today we pushed very hard, averaging 15km hiking per person, but now we're in a great condition to finish by mid-day tomorrow (Saturday). There are only 3 sites left; one is going to be a short, but painful hike as it has a lot of topography and no clear route, while the other two are further from the road but are on relatively flat hikes. In order to make the last two stations able to be finished in a single day, once the teams were done with our main goals today, we dropped the station boxes for the last two stations en route to the last two station locations. This should make deploying the last two stations significantly easier as we won't need to return to the car between sites and the total distance to be hiked carrying the ~50lbs station will be about 2km. This hiking distance is comparable to the other stations we've done and will do tomorrow.

As tough as the day was, we did get some nice samples along the way. Jackie found some beautiful geodes on the trek and Daniel found a bunch of obsidian samples, which he's curious if they may be tektites. Definitely one of the joys of working out here is the natural beauty and rocks everywhere. Most of the plant life we see are thorny scrub bushes, but we also sometimes see lizards and hares who make their living off what little they can.

The California Inn in Barstow seems to be a nexus for geologists. We've overheard several geologists chatting at breakfast and had a chance to meet a few and chat about what we're doing out here.

An artsy picture by me. It almost looks like an alien landscape with rays of sun beaming down onto the field of volcanic rocks.

Hill-slopes and volcanic rubble.

Photogenic lizard.

Proof that my job is better than your vacation. 

Side of a typical wash.  

The local fauna out here make their homes in the rocks.

Jackie taking a photo of a rock, because that's what geologists do.

Our usual hiking trail - rough terrains cut by stream channels.

Proof that lost balloons find their way to the Mojave.

A fluffy white stray cat appears to live by the hotel. Today, he was checking out my tires making sure they're properly inflated.

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