After Heath departed from Spanish Springs his next stop was at the McKissick Ranch in Secret Valley, managed by C. L. Hudgins for J.L. Humphrey owner of the ranch. Hudgins wife gave the following warning to Heath for his next destination, Wendel:

On finding we were to cross considerable real desert, Mrs. Hudgins warned me, in crossing the desert there was a plain trail, never to leave that trail in trying to cut across. The Hudgins knew all about that whole country, I may say, for hundreds of miles around. She told me that in leaving the trail many people got lost and frequently perished. First they would find themselves lost, got confused and get to weaving back and forth or traveling in a circle, and frequently never would get out of alive.

The next place that Heath wrote about with interest was his stay at the Caudle Ranch, ten miles east of Amedee. Heath wrote, “The Caudles also have a flowing well 450 feet deep. The well had flowed, but in this last year it had nearly ceased to flow. Marvin had a windmill and was pumping what water he could with the windmill. He wrote me a year or later that he had re-established the flow by syphon. I was glad to hear this.” In addition, Heath noted that the Caudle brothers—Carl and Marvin—had earned $20,000 as civil engineers and invested it in a failed irrigation project [Standish Water Company] and that they would be lucky to get ten percent back from their property.

When Heath departed Caudle’s on January 8, 1927 he had traveled 6,708 miles.

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