Days 21-29

Day 29: June 20, mile 693.5- 702.2, 6.7 miles

I was up early and ready to head into town! I started hiking in this beautiful basin with some granitic peaks around me. It was really starting to feel like the Sierra Nevadas, yeehaw!! I hiked to the road and headed into the general store. I saw another hiker/trail angel I knew who gave me a ride to Grumpy Bears. We spent the day hanging around the bar/restaurant for the day after eating a mega breakfast. My dad drove up from San Diego to hang for the day. What a great surprise! And it was father’s day. I am excited to enter the Sierra tomorrow. Somehow 8 days of food fit in my pack and I’m hoping to carry all the way to Tuolomne Meadows, 240 miles without crossing a road: how cool! I can’t wait to get started after camping with my Dad, Amanda, and Margot tonight.

Day 28: June 19, mile 664.1 -693.5, 29.4mi

After sleeping hard last night I woke up super chipper and ready to hike!! I cruised the first 4.5mi to a spring then Margot and Amanda caught up. Along the way I saw bear tracks on 3 separate sections. The dry was recently cleansed of footprints from the wind and I was the first person on it for the morning. Very cool to see big animals using the same trails we do while we sleep. I may have also seen some mountain lion tracks but I am not sure. At the spring we got water, I washed my socks and feet, and we headed out. We had a bit of a climb up but I love it. I wasn’t too weighed down by my pack, the uphill felt great, and I felt strong. I was smiling big time. This was one of those days I was stoked to be on trail!! At the top I checked my phone and I had a text from my dad. He was on his way to Kennedy Meadows to meet me!! How fun!! I called him briefly and told him I was stoked to see him and hustled back to trail. Not too many miles later we made it to a creek. We took a break there with the other hikers from nearby. It felt like a warm day but we had shade under a big tree and water nearby…..it almost seemed like we were out of the desert! After a bit of a break we hiked on. The scenery was great, it was starting to feel mountainous with granite peaks and many trees. The hike out of the creek we had awesome views looking back. We made it to the next creek around 8pm and met a few folks out for a weekend trip. We had planned on hiking a few more miles but ended up chatting with them and deciding to camp here. They even shared avocado with us, what a treat!

Day 27: June 18, mile 634.1-664.1, 30mi

Shortly after falling asleep we had a big windstorm move through. I noticed some big puffy clouds forming in the afternoon, but didn’t pay them any attention. It can’t rain in the desert, right?? The wind moved in with some fat raindrops which we thought would pass quickly. A bit later it was not passing. I rushed to set up my tarp and we scrambled under. The wind got heavier and ended up affecting our sleep through the night. Bummer! The tarp collapsed at 4:11am, right when we usually wake up I re-erected it and we slept in a bit. We were on trail just after 6am and right away meet a few hikers we had seen earlier. The also had rough nights. The trail meandered out of the pine ridge and down until there were minimal trees left and rocky and sandy substrate. We arrived at Walker Pass around 1pm and there was trail magic with fruit, water, and Gatorade! Yum!! We hung out a bit then left the campground to hike to camp. We had a tough climb out of the pass but luckily the sun was largely behind clouds. We found ourselves on a rocky granite ridge overlooking the desert below with awesome views. It feels like we are almost in the Sierra! We got to camp just before 8:30, tired from a poor night of sleep.

Day 26: June 17, mile 603.4 -634.1, 30.7mi

We got an even earlier start today. I was on trail just after 4:30am. A few miles in a head poked up above a log. It was Amanda! She hiked a bit further than we camped and me passing her was the impetus to get up. She packed fast and joined me on trail. We hiked for maybe an hour and a half until we reached a sweet spring. They had privies and we both used em then walked over to the water. The spring was gushing!! We took some time to fill up, eat a bit, and I finally got to wash my socks (down stream of course!). Margot showed up before too long. I rinsed my legs a bit. They were filthy. I took off, leaving Amanda and Margot to finish their chores. The trail promptly left the nice trees and began descending into the desert. Bummer. It was warning up too. 7mi in there was a sweet water cache. I chugged a liter and topped off my bottles. I met a few other hikers, chatted a bit, then took off. There was a decent climb out of the cache and I put in some grateful dead and jammed out. It was great. Awesome views, Joshua trees, and some good music. By 10, things were already getting warm out there. I hiked on, crossing dirt roads with good views all around. Around 1230 I was starting to feel the heat of the day and took a short break under a piñon pine (I think) and ate some ramen for lunch. I continued for just over an hour, passing some napping hikers until I couldn’t take the heat anymore. Another hiker was getting up to hike and I took his shade spot. His thermometer said it was 100⁰ out. Feeling drowsy, I laid down and napped in the small shade intermittently for about an hour and a half. I woke up when the shade had moved on me and I was in the sun. By then some big pooofy clouds were above and teasing the sun almost clouding out the sun. I figured it was as good of a time as any to start walking so I continued on in somewhat of a stupor. 10 minutes later I heard a familiar voice, it was Margot! She caught up to me! She was in a great mood, singing to the desert and “DJing* the “Mojave desert radio station.” I’m sure the Joshua trees appreciated the show. We hiked onto the next water cache enjoying the sudden cloud cover and a light consistent breeze, walking some ridges. We made it to the cache. It was great! Tons of water and they even had charging bricks. Wow! We hung out there, cooking dinner and drinking some water. A couple of other hikers rolled in when we were about to leave. Always hard to not chat but we had a few miles to bed. The last 4 miles were a bit of a climb to a ridge. Great sunset and nice breeze through camp which should help with sleeping in the heat. Today I drank about 3gallons of water. I was still pretty dehydrated.

Day 25: June 16, mile 572.9 -603.4, 30.5mi

We woke up early. Margot and I got on trail before 5am. It was my birthday. I had an emotional start to the day and wondered why I was out here. Funny how the low points can be so close to the high points like last night. After awhile I started looking up and the reason why I was out here was apparent. I just needed to look around!! I caught up with Margot and we had some good conversation to a spring. There I saw a couple familiar faces, folks I had met earlier and a couple new people. On a mission, we didn’t dawdle too long and took off before too long. We were hustling and making good use of our early start. We passed through a construction area and a guy offered us some chilled water. Yes please!! They were working on a project to install large wind turbines on the ridge. It looked almost like mountaintop removal to make large enough flat areas for the turbines. We hiked on, it got hot. We took a break that ended up stretching a little longer than planned. When we got back on trail we were thirsty. We were still a bit of a ways from the spring and I started rationing my water. It wasnt great. I knew I’d make it, but an extra liter or two would have been nice. It was uncomfortable to say the least, hiking through the heat of the day and rationing water. Of course that’s all I could think about: water, cold water, mountain streams, gallons of Gatorade, cold soda, etc. We pushed hard. It was uncomfortable but an important lesson that is easy to be told but I will be more careful after that. Thankfully the next stream had good flow. We filled up in the evening and hung out and cooked there. We night hiked to a campsite half an hour beyond the spring. The scenery today was was excellent. I dont have memories of much of this section and I was pleasantly surprised.

Day 24: June 15, mile 555.6-572.9, 17.3 miles

Margot and I woke up under the wind turbine and walked 3 miles to a road crossing. After the road crossing we walked through tons of turbines in the tehachapi wind farm. So many, and of all generations. It was cool to say and surprisingly beautiful. Ahhhh a walk in nature. Margot and I did 11 miles to a highway crossing to try and find a ride into town. As we got close to the overpass three other hikers were already there and dancing on the overpass to try and get trucks to honk!! I ran up and joined them and had a blast dancing and tons of trucks honked. Our timing was perfect because one of the hikers had called for a ride and 5 minutes after we arrived she was there. We all crammed in to her car and she drove us into town. We got groceries and hung out on the bench outside for a bit. Then we walked over and had delicious Thai food. After, we loitered on some excellent grass. Just like in 2017, tehachapi’s lawns are awesome!! We caught a ride out of town with another trail angel who dropped us off a bit after 6. We did about 6 more miles largely uphill and as the sun was setting the sky lit up. I was exhilarated. These are the moments that stand out to me thruhiking. Backpacking and hiking I’m not usually on trail as the sun sets, but thruhiking I am. I get to experience the trail in all it’s glory 12+ hours a day. No hiding out in a tent! I was stoked to be there. I took a number of photos and we continued hiking until finding a good tent spot. Margot Amanda and I lined up like sardines and went to bed.

Day 23: June 14, mile 533.0-555.6, 22.6miles

We woke up kind of tired when the sun hit our eyes after a late night of aqueduct walking. We stumbled onto the trail and hiked 1.5 miles to a water spigot that we had aimed to get to last night but fell a bit short. Shortly after we left the aqueduct and started hiking through windmills. About 6 miles after the spigot was a trickle of water from a stream. We stopped there to get some water and saw a bunch of other hikers we had hiked with the night before. They had pushed hard, some arriving at 4am that morning, and were mostly relaxing in the shade of a huge beautiful oak tree. We don’t get many big trees out here so we hung out in the shade for awhile. We chatted with some folks, three of which were from NH! And I tried to nap a bit. We took off a bit after noon and hiked through the heat of the day. I had noticed some motorcycle tracks climbing hills and crossing the trail. At one descent location we decided to run down a steep and loose scree slope. What fun!! We caught up to Amanda and sat in the shade for a bit. We then started ambling asking, picked up another hiker taking a break and had some lively discussion. At mile 449 we visited the “449 cafe” where a trail angel maintains water and some treats! What fun! We took another break then the group of hikers caught up to us. We started to feel ancy to get going and took off. We walked another 2.5hrs then hit the hay. We camped below some turbines on a bit of a windy ridge. Very cool location though!

Day 22: June 13, mile 502.4- 533.0, 30.6miles

Margot and I woke up early and enjoyed a great sunrise. We filtered some not awesome water from a cistern then took off hiking. The morning was mostly in oak woodlands with some sweet grassy meadows and open areas. We passed through a burn area with all these small white flowers. The flowers looked like they were floating and their were hundreds of them in some areas. We caught up to another group eating breakfast. We chatted for a minute and they assured us it was all downhill to hikertown. It largely was and in no time we left the shade of the oaks and found ourselves among the desert scrub. The trail was largely downhill but did have a few climbs. By 9 or 930 things were starting to get hot. We met a cool botanist guy named Mike who gave me his number and told me to text him if I have any plant questions, and to send photos! We got to hikertown right around noon and met Amanda there. Not long later we headed to the Neenach Store and Cafe where we had lunch and were pleasantly surprised with their snack/resupply options. We ate lunch and our free ice cream (for hikers) then headed back to hikertown. I caught up on a couple emails, tried to nap, and then ended up hanging out with other hikers for the afternoon. I washed some socks then we started to pack up. The three of us left around 540 and began the aqueduct section. There was a light breeze and the sun got low pretty quickly. It was quite pleasant and we had a good time walking and chatting. We took a break a bit after sunset and another group of 6 hikers caught up with 4 more not far behind them. We chatted with them then split off into groups. We grouped/regrouped a couple more times. The aqueduct section was pretty fun. We didn’t make it to the spigot at “the end” but found a flat spot next to a juniper and laid down around midnight. It was fun to hike and chat with a bunch of other hikers who I only sort of knew from the past few days and this afternoon.