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…
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…