Day 45 Last night when I got back to my tent, one of my shoes from the first pair were missing. They had been sitting outside the tent, and it seemed nowhere to be found in the dark. On the other hand I found another shoe under a nearby tree that had been chewed up by some domestic or feral animal. Hmm. I therefore postponed getting up to next day in order have the morning…
Day 44 If you have been reading the blog you probably already know most of the deal of a zero day: Laundry, resupply, showering etc. Today was mostly about that, though it took quite a bit of effort. I had ordered some stuff from REI, and on the shipping label, my name was basically cut off, so it was difficult and we (e.g. me and one of the employees at the general store) very nearly…
Day 43 Today, I was off to a rough start as I woke up to serious pains in the right side of my hip whenever I moved. I had had this in a much, much lesser degree in the beginning of days since Tehachapi. One would think it would be from the hip joint based on the location, but it is actually a bursa (slime sack) that has gotten inflamed on the outside of the…
Day 42 As usual I got up early to beat the heat. Today I was hiking by 3:30 am after way too little sleep. I started noticing that the landscape was changing as there came more and more exposed rocks signifying that we were near the Sierras. At around eleven I had my second breakfast and afterwards wanted to go the next stretch. It was a 550m (1800 feet) ascent, which again would not be…
Day 41 As mentioned before you can only get to the trail three times a week by bus here from Ridgecrest, so instead of having to take two zeros and wait until Wednesday to get back to the trail I did what in hiking terminology would be called a “nero”, which is a day where you do nearly zero miles. So I checked out as late as possible from my hotel, wen to do a…
Day 40 The weather forecast predicted even higher temperatures for today so it probably wouldn’t surprise readers of the blog that I was up early today as well. Woke up at 2:30 am an slowly start packing and was walking by 4 am. All the aches of yesterday had magically disappeared an I was feeling well. For the first part, however, I was so tired from not getting enough sleep the last couple of days…
Day 39 I had a long stretch without reliable water sources ahead of me today as mentioned in the post preceding this one. Thus, at four am I was already walking, but even then you could sense that it was going to be a very warm day. There were hardly any wildlife or shadow along the trail, and only small bushes and other small plants. It was pretty harsh conditions I therefore brought out my…
Day 38 Had a bit of a difficult sleep due to the intense wind despite camping in what I thought was a fairly shielded camping spot, but at least it wasn’t cold. Having already done a lot of miles for this stretch yesterday I was in no hurry as I only had to do 59 miles in three days so I took longer breaks at the water sources. Water sources here in the desert section…
Day 37 Today I was going back to the trail for four days into the driest and hitherto most remote section of the trail. To my luck a bus was driving more or less directly from my hotel to the freeway where I got off trail since it was now a weekday albeit only a couple of times a day. Foregoing the hotel breakfast and my beauty sleep I decided to aim for the four…
Day 36 I took another day here in Tehachapi, mostly as a means to delay the date I will arrive in Kennedy Meadows. I binged on the breakfast buffet at the hotel, and later went on a stroll through Tehachapi. Seems like a relaxed little village. The town museum was unfortunately not open today. Instead I went to the thai restaurant “Thai Hachapi” in part because I liked the pun. Other than that there was…