Agua Dulce – Tehatchapi.

Mile 465 – 566.

Day 23 – 26.

From Agua Dulce the trail returns to moderate elevations in rolling hills with shrubs and small groves of trees. This is a part of the trail where hikers will encounter the dreaded poodle dog bush – a highly toxic plant that causes severe allergic reactions. After that, the trail drops down into a low-lying flat area where it follows along the Los Angeles Aqua Duct for many miles before crossing through a massive wind farm before Tehatchapi.

Day 23

It was going to be a hot day. I did my best to wake up slightly earlier and pack up efficiently. I knew it was unlikely I’d be able to hike past noon today with the heat, and I wanted to get to a good siesta spot with shade and water. I had two options: a fire station near the trail 12 miles out, or a creek crossing 20 miles out. I was feeling ambitious and decided to aim for the latter option.

Hiking fast, I found myself passing many other hikers this morning, many of which I hadn’t met yet. Passing is a little different in this day and age than it was on my 2014 Appalachian Trail thru-hike since today, most hikers walk with earbuds in. Each time I’d come up behind a hiker, I’d call out. “Good morning. Good Morning! GOOD MORNING!!!!!” Until finally they’d hear me.

After the 5th or 6th headphoned hiker in a row, I decided to give up on using my “indoor voice” and go straight to shouting while passing. Unfortunately, the first time I tried this, it was actually a hiker without headphones and I completely startled him by abruptly yelling at his back. I apologized profusely and learned my lesson.

In the mid-morning, I popped into the fire station for a quick water refill but kept hiking. The temperatures were scorching hot, but I arrived at my siesta spot at the creek by noon, completing 20 miles before lunchtime! Not bad!

I enjoyed a wonderful siesta under the shady cottonwood trees. There was soft sand to lay on and the babbling creek lulled me into deep relaxation.

Swish and GTA caught up to me and shared my great siesta spot too. I’m glad the three of us all got to hang out one last time because today was GTA’s last day on the trail before temporarily getting off for her college graduation. GTA and I parted ways that evening, after hiking mostly together for over 400 miles. I will miss her!

In the evening, once it cooled off some, Swish and I continued on in the dimming light. I was glad to hike this trail in the evening, because it crossed through some small burn areas, leaving little shade. Unfortunately, burn areas on the PCT provide the ideal habitat for poodle dog brush – a highly toxic plant that causes severe skin reactions if you touch it. I saw plenty of this horrid plant as I walked and did my best not to brush up against it.

Despite the poodle dog brush, this part of the trail was actually quite lovely at sunset. Eventually, I got out my headlamp to make it the last couple of miles to camp. I often sing while night hiking, to scare off animals, but tonight I didn’t, as I didn’t want to annoy Swish with my off-key vocalizations.

As I rounded a bend, suddenly, Swish stopped on the trail in front of me, motioning for me to be quiet and pointing down into the woods off the ridge. We pointed our headlamp beams down the slope, to see two small lights shining back at us.

Wait. Not lights. Eyes. A bobcat!

The cat was crouched on a log, 50 feet below the trail, peering up at us with what I interpreted as a mixture of caution and curiosity. Unlike the mountain goats I’d seen a few days earlier on Mt Baden Powell, the kitty didn’t flee; it simply observed us from a safe distance as we passed by.

I’d never seen a live feline in the wild until today. I have no desire to encounter the bobcat’s larger cousin, the mountain lion, any time soon. But my bobcat sighting was definitely the highlight of my day and one of the coolest animal encounters of my trip!

I got to camp, a large grassy clearing in the forest, by 9 pm. Shortly after, I was in my quilt with my eyes closed. I might not be quick at packing up in the morning, but I make up for it by being extremely efficient at night. I can go from hiking to asleep in about 30 minutes!

As I lay in bed drifting off, I realized that this was my first time hiking over 30 miles in a day on my PCT thru-hike. Though I’ve done a lot of 29’s.

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Day 24

I woke up to hear Swish’s voice calling from the other side of the grassy clearing.

“Do you want to get up, or sleep for 15 more minutes?”

I am always one to opt for 15 more minutes of sleep in the morning. If not 30. Even so, I hit the trail at a very reasonable hour.

Most mornings when I start hiking, I don’t really have a specific plan of where I want to camp that night. I usually just hike until I’m tired or I find a good campsite. But today was different. Today, I wanted to do my longest day of hiking ever! To do so, I would need to hike a minimum of 36 miles.

Today was an ideal day to cover a long distance. The day started with a 20-mile downhill through lovely forests and grassy pastures, which led to a small resupply area known as Hikertown. From there, the trail is virtually flat for another 15 miles or so miles, following the Los Angeles Aqua Duct across a particularly exposed section of desert. Many thru-hikers opt to walk this section of trail at night, to avoid cooking under the desert sun in the heat of the day.

Despite missing water sources twice and having to backtrack, I covered the downhill miles quickly and arrived at Hikertown by 12:30 pm. Perfect timing for my siesta during the hottest part of the day. I definitely didn’t want to start in on the aqua duct until the temperatures cooled off in the evening.

Hikertown is an odd place, but I’ll do my best to describe it.

As thru-hikers cross through the desert, in an area mostly devoid of civilization, they come upon a strange oasis of sorts. Directly next to the trail, they find a little encampment surrounded by chain link fences. Inside, there are a series of little sheds in a row, decorated to look like the storefronts of an old west town. There are also several trailers where I assume the owners of this weird property live. Half a dozen friendly dogs wander around the area. And in the center of the strange property, you’ll find a shady pavilion packed with thru-hikers trying to escape the mid-day sun.

I joined the hikers there and tried to relax and nap a little. I also picked up a resupply box that I’d sent myself, and chatted with other hikers. I ran into Stealth, another thru-hiker who began the trail on my start day, and his friend, Hornet. These two had big plans. They were going to start the Aqua duct this evening, and continue walking all the way to Tehatchapi in one big push without stopping to sleep!

Located just past the 500-mile mark on the trail, Hikertown is a very popular place for thru-hikers to mail their first pair of replacement shoes. I’d opted to send my new shoes to Tehachapi instead. This was a gamble, as my first pair were in pretty rough shape already. Furthermore, I’d started developing blisters over the last few days, something I’ve rarely had to deal with in my life, even on my other thru-hikes. I’m beginning to suspect that the poor condition of my shoes is the culprit. Either that or my increased mileage yesterday and today.

By late afternoon, some clouds rolled in. With the temperature dropping, I was antsy to get going. I began my long road walk along the Aqua Duct around 5 pm.

The LA Aqua duct is a long, partially buried water pipe next to a dirt road. On the aqua duct section of the PCT, thru-hikers walk next to thousands of gallons of flowing water for many miles. Ironically, hikers cannot access the water inside the pipe and must carry quite a bit to make it between the scarce sources in this area.

My hike along the aqua duct was actually pretty great! The sunset was lovely and there were tons of cool Joshua Trees. I stopped and ate my dinner (buffalo pasta salad) before carrying on by headlamp into the night, walking and chatting with Swish, Yi-Ting, and J-Go.

After nightfall, the trail began climbing up and away from the aqua duct, into a wind farm. It was surreal to walk through this wind farm at night. Though I couldn’t see the hundreds of turbines, the darkness around me was filled with their blinking red lights and I could hear the mechanical whir of their rotating blades.

Whoever built the wind farm picked a great spot for it. The wind was absolutely ripping. We all hiked in a line, drafting off each other like cyclists, and leaning forward at an angle into the powerful gusts. It was an exhausting way to end a long day.

Pushing through my tiredness, I hiked on by headlamp, searching for anything to provide enough of a windbreak to camp in the barren landscape. Around midnight, I came across a tiny patch of trees. While they only provided mediocre shelter from the wind, I decided it would have to do.

I struggled against the wind to spread out my ground sheet and sleeping pad. But finally, I crawled under my quilt, feeling thoroughly spent. In total, I’d hiked over 42 miles today – my longest day ever by far! I just hoped I wouldn’t regret it when I woke up tomorrow.

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Day 25

I woke up feeling like garbage.

I’d slept terribly, thanks to the fierce wind, and could feel a little headache coming on. Amazingly my muscles and joints felt ok. My feet, not so much. Despite my best taping efforts, my blisters had only grown larger during my 40-miler.

I’d slept in, and the sun was already hitting my quilt. Today was the first day of a forecasted hot spell. I was sweating before I even finished packing up camp.

The first uphill mile to the water source was brutal. The next 7 uphill miles were worse. My fatigued legs felt like lead weights, and my clothes were soaked through with sweat. Alone on the trail, I indulged myself in yelling and shouting profanity at nothing. It helped a lot.

My day improved when I reached the top of the climb. There was a dirt road at the top of the hill, where I found a large water cache. Best of all, the trail angel who maintains the cache was there restocking it, and gave me an icy cold soda! It was some much-appreciated trail magic on a hot day!

After that, my hike was mostly downhill, through another wind farm. It was hot, but not hot enough to need a proper siesta. Instead, I took a strategic lunch break in the shade, under the only tree near the trail. During my lunch break, I realized the tree was marked with a “no loitering or trespassing” sign. But with no other options to escape the sun, I didn’t feel particularly bad about loitering… until, while sitting under said tree, I got bit in the butt by fire ants!

In pain and frustrated, I stood up, only to whack my head on the tree branch directly above me. Seeing stars, I sat back down. I gave up on enjoying my shady trespassing spot and started packing up my things. As I packed, I hit my head on the same branch again. I was not having a good day.

Fortunately, my body started feeling a bit better after lunch. As I walked, my legs gradually started feeling less heavy. I’ve often heard the phrase “motion is the lotion” when it comes to recovering from a big endurance effort. That certainly felt like the case today.

It wasn’t the most scenic afternoon overall. The trail continued through a wind farm all the way to the highway, where I could get into the trail town of Tehachapi. I think between yesterday and today, I’ve likely seen over a thousand wind turbines. It was fun for the first 10 miles of wind farm, but after a day and a half, I’m ready to never see another windmill again. Unfortunately, I can already see that the turbines continue up the next climb after the highway to Tehachapi. I’m looking forward to more scenic hiking in the Sierras soon, which I’ll reach in another ~150 miles.

I got a ride from a trail angel into Tehachapi on the highway. I grabbed some microwave dinners and salad kits at Walmart and enjoyed a very chill evening relaxing in my motel room. I’m very excited to catch up on sleep after my big push the last few days.

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Day 26

Today was my second zero day of the trail in Tehachapi, CA!  Though I wasn’t feeling as mentally run down as I was when I reached Big Bear for my first zero, I could tell that my body was ready for a day off. Furthermore, the next two days are the worst of the bad heat wave going on and I’m more than content to wait them out in an air conditioned motel room.

I “slept in” until 7 am. Then I went and attempted to single-handedly bankrupt the motel chain by eating an obscene amount of food at their complementary Continental breakfast buffet. I was unsuccessful, as my eyes were bigger than my stomach, as is often the case when I reach town.

After that, I did laundry at the motel, took a nap, and organized my gear. In the afternoon, I walked to Walmart again to resupply. With a 6-day food carry to Kennedy Meadows, I’m doing my best to only purchase what I actually need this time. I’m hoping it’s enough.

After Walmart, I hitchhiked the 2 miles to the grocery store. I felt a little silly hitchhiking such a short distance as a thru-hiker who walks all day. But I figured this is my day off, and I should stay off my tired feet as much as possible.

Fortunately, I was picked up almost immediately by a dad with two little kids in the back seat. He was just driving around waiting for his youngest to fall asleep and was more than happy to take me all the way to the post office’s front door.

At the post office, I picked up my first pair of new shoes! After ~550 miles, my first pair is pretty trashed! I’ll feel more confident hiking the Sierras on shoes that actually have some tread.

After that, my town chores were all finished, so I focused on relaxing. In the evening, I briefly attend a happy hour for hikers hosted at a local brewery. Once the temps cooled off for the evening, I took a dip in my motel’s hot tub. At the end of the day, Swish, Miranda, and I filled the bathtub in our motel room with Epson salt and sat three in a row on the edge of the tub, soaking our feet while eating a Walmart rotisserie chicken straight out of the bag. It was a moment only a group of thru-hikers could truly appreciate.