Day 35 Slept in and enjoyed the complementary breakfast, which probably is a bigger expense for the hotel for us hiker guests. Before laundry I pre rinsed my socks in the bathtub leaving it completely opaque and with a very dark brown color. Trail dirt certainly is a thing. After laundry I went to do resupply in a super market, which unfortunately was a couple of miles of walking, but walking back from there with…
Day 34 Today was a going to town day, as the goal was to reach the small town of Tehachapi. It is funny how you are looking forward to getting back to civilization, but shortly after you’ve set foot there you want to be back on trail and get restlessness about not getting nearer Canada sets in. There were no reliable water sources between here and the highway back to Mohave or Tehachapi, so I…
Day 33 Got up extra early today as Most of today’s hike was at the desert floor and therefore bound to be hot. At four am I was on the trail and soon got to the first variation of the LA aqueduct system which was an open aqueduct, which the trail followed, it then underwent metamorphosis to a large round rusty metal pipe and several miles later into a rectangular square concrete structure before leaving…
Day 32 Well, I had not gotten a good nights sleep in part because of the bear and in part because it was cold and that the wind twice had pulled up an important tent stake of my tent. Further, there was a thick mist and a slight drizzle. In combination with the thought of the bear still being around meant that I was in no mood for getting up early, but when I finally…
Day 31 Woke up late as I wanted to wait for the breakfast at Casa de Luna, which was pancakes and was great. The hostess was actually the cousin of Elvis and had a large cardboard figure in her living room. After breakfast we posed for group photos and just before the photo was taken the hostess mooned us. That surely caught me by surprise and I think I resultantly must have had a weird…
Day 30 There was a long and exposed climb at the beginning of today’s iteanrry so I got up and started walking back to the trail a little after five am. Turned out to be an overcast and colder day so the climb was easy. It was foggy and slightly drizzling. When one sood still, distant birds could be heard. Further up the mountain the mist was condensing so extensively that it was actually raining…
Day 29 In case you missed last days post you might think that “Hiker Heaven” is where hikers who fall of cliffs or get mauled by bears go and not the colloquial name of a backyard belonging to a married couple outside rural Agua Dulce who lets hikers camp there. The amenities include port-a-potties, showers (warm ones if you are patient), wifi, the possibility to recharge your electrical devices and yourself. Today I am taking…
Day 28 The small rural town of Aqua Dulce was the aim of today’s hiking. Got up early as usual and got some easy but uneventful miles done. Then at a point where the trail crossed a road I was surprised to find trail magic again from the aforementioned “Copper Tone” that I had met a week earlier. Nice! He had simply moved shop further into the trail. Small talked with him and and some…