Tehatchapi to ~Kennedy Meadows.

Mile 566 – 705.

Days 27 – 32.

Past Tehachapi, the trail feels like the desert, with rolling hills covered in Joshua trees and long dry sections where hikers must carry lots of heavy water. As the trail approaches Kennedy Meadows, the scenery becomes greener, with pines replacing the prickly desert plants.

Day 27

Today was a “nero” day in Tehachapi. A nero is a day in which a thru-hiker does very little walking. I.e., nearly a zero. Different thru-hikers have different definitions for a nero. Many are based on mileage (e.g., some hikers might say anything under 10 miles is a nero). My personal criteria for a nero is that it must include at least two meals eaten in town.

Even though I zeroed yesterday, I wanted to Nero today to wait out the worst of the heat. There’s been a ~3-day-long heat spell with temps in the 90s. My plan was to wait out the worst of the final hot day and start hiking in the evening once things started cooling off.

I enjoyed the complimentary breakfast at my motel again. Then I packed up my gear and lounged around until checkout time. Then I had some time to kill.

When most people picture thru-hiking, they probably imagine walking through scenic mountains on a trail. In reality, about 20% of thru-hiking is just loitering with fancy backpacking gear.

To do some loitering and avoid the heat, I headed to the German bakery in Tehachapi. I hung out with other thru-hikers there, doing the same thing as me for several hours. After that, I caught the free bus back to the trailhead on highway 58 and was hiking by 5 pm.

My first mile back on the trail was rough. I always expect that hiking will feel great after a day off, but it often doesn’t. It’s like my legs need some time to warm back up to hiking after a rest.

To make matters worse, this new section is a ~5-day food carry and begins with a 17-mile water carry before the first source. And, it starts with a ~2,000-foot climb. And even at 5 pm, it was still over 80 degrees outside. All these factors combined and contributed to my struggle.

Fortunately, my woes were short-lived. In the heat, it didn’t take me long to drink through some of the heavy water load I was carrying. Eventually, the temperatures cooled a bit, and I found myself traversing a lovely ridge on a dirt road at the top of the climb.

The sunset on my evening walk was absolutely stunning. Furthermore, I put in headphones and listened to a little music for the first time on this trip. This was my first time listening to music in almost a month and it was so good that I almost cried with happiness. Even after a rough start, I found myself enjoying myself immensely.

I hiked and chatted for the last few miles of the day with Swish and PFT, another PCT thru-hiker and former AT thru-hiker I met today while leaving Tehachapi. We walked a little ways by headlamp until we found a nice campsite big enough for all three of us to share. We all ate dinner together, and then I stayed up a little later than I should have to write this blog.

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Day 28

I had a rough morning. I didn’t sleep well last night, and I think after two mornings in town, my body was starting to expect coffee upon waking. Feeling half asleep, I started down the trail.

As I rounded a corner, I came upon Swish stopped on the trail, holding a bottle of pepper spray.

“Have you ever sprayed one of these?”

I hadn’t. Swish just found the bottle lying on the ground on the trail. We took turns spraying the pepper spray into the bushes, which was quite fun and improved my crummy mood, before packing the bottle out as trash.

We arrived at the water source, a pipe spring, where we saw PFT – who turned out to be the owner of the lost pepper spray. Oops. At the spring, I filled up enough water to make it 20 miles to the next source. I shouldered my heavy pack and walked on.

The next miles were fairly exposed with occasional shrubs and Joshua trees, and (annoyingly) more wind farms. I’ve calculated that so far, the PCT has been roughly 10% wind farm. Everyone always talks about the scenic views on the PCT – but they might be slightly outweighed by wind farms!

A little after noon, I started looking for a shady spot for a long lunch. The super hot spell is now over, but the temps are still reaching the low 80s most days. I wanted to take a strategic long lunch break out of the sun, rather than a multi-hour siesta.

I found the coziest little shady spot under some bushes and a lonely stand of pine trees that looked rather out of place in the desert setting. I spread out my foam mat and plopped down to consume 1000 calories or so.

I don’t remember falling asleep, but I found myself waking up face down on my mat 45 minutes later. It seems my body now expects a midday nap.

I hiked with Swish in the afternoon, and we got talking about crazy hiker tan lines. There are the obvious ones – like sock lines and sunglasses lines, as well as less common ones like my knee brace line. And glove tan lines…

Wait.

Where were my gloves? They most certainly were not on my hands. Oh no. They were likely lying next to the trail about 0.7 miles back where I’d taken my last snack break. Looks like I’d be going for a 1.4-mile trail run today.

I ditched my pack on the ground and grabbed my phone and water bottle. Sighing, I took off down the trail at a jog. It was actually kind of nice to move quickly and without my pack for once. In the absence of the familiar weight on my shoulders, I felt almost like I was floating.

After retrieving my gloves and returning to where I’d left my pack, I finished hiking to the water source. Another piped spring. I filled up and chatted with April, a thru-hiker and wildlife enthusiast. We had fun sharing the tales of all our best animal encounters with each other.

After that, I hiked a short distance to a lovely campsite. I arrived before sunset, and killed some time before bed by watching the wispy desert clouds form different shapes in the sky.

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Day 29

My day started with a lovely 10-mile walk through a pine forest. This section so far has alternated between lovely, shaded pine forests on North facing slopes, and brutally hot and exposed sections of Joshua tree desert on the South slopes. Unfortunately, so far I’ve always hit the shady pine bits in the mornings and evenings, and the desert bits mid-day. Today would be no exception.

I arrived at a water source after 10 miles, a water cache on the side of a dirt road. This particular section of the trail would be incredibly difficult without water caches. For the next 40 miles or so, there are no natural sources near the trail, only caches. After this particular cache, I had only a 15-mile carry until the next cache. Heavy, but certainly quite manageable.

As the day grew hotter, I found myself walking uphill through sand in the exposed desert. A little before 1 pm, I started seeking shelter from the sun. The only options in this area were the tiny patches of shade under the larger Joshua trees.

However, each time I saw a nice shady tree, there was already a hiker sitting beneath it! This must have happened 10 times before I reached the start of a climb, and there were no more tree options. Aggravated and hot, I walked on. Surely I’d find shade somewhere else?

After another mile or so of climbing, I came to another grove of Joshua trees. Fortunately, this time, I found a tree without a hiker attached to it. Swish and I squeezed into the tiny spot of shade to eat lunch and take a couple hours siesta nap.

I am ready to be out of the desert, as the heat is quite brutal. However, the Joshua trees have been a highlight, and not just because they provide shade. These are some of the most bizarre plants I’ve ever seen. They look like giant, contorted figures, caught in some sort of strange freeze dance.

Around 4 pm, the temps cooled enough to hike on. We arrived at the next cache, on the side of a dirt road. There were probably already 20 or so thru-hikers camped here. In the last few days, I’ve seen a lot more thru-hikers. I may be catching up with the “bubble”. If you think of thru-hikers as being spread out along the trail like a moving bell curve, the “bubble” is right at the center of that bell curve. Thanks to my May 5th start date, I began a good bit behind the bubble. But it seems I’m gaining on it.

After the cache, I had a beautiful sunset climb up to a saddle where we thought there’d be good camping. Apparently, a lot of hikers thought so too. There were already 10 or so people camped in the tiny site, most of them already asleep. Swish and I struggled to quietly find two spots to set up our cowboy camps in the dark amongst the gaggle of other hikers and tents.

Being as quiet as possible, I got my sleeping bag and mat set up and was preparing to settle in for a restful night. Then, I noticed Swish staring in fascinated horror at the ground.

ANTS!!!!!

They were everywhere! Hundreds of them. Swarming all over our packs and sleeping bags.

We rapidly came to the consensus that we couldn’t stay here with the horrid insects. By headlamp, we packed up our bags as quickly as we’d unpacked them, and hit the trail again.

We walked another mile by headlamp until we found a flat spot large enough for two people to cowboy camp. It wasn’t the evening either of us had in mind, but it’s what we got. However, there were two silver linings:

First, as we walked in the dark, we spotted an elf owl! I’d never seen one before. Second, with the additional mile we hiked to escape the ants, I broke 30 miles in a day for the 3rd time on this trip!

Even with my unplanned late-night insect issues, I was at camp by 9:30 pm and asleep by 10. Not a bad day.

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Day 30

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

The sound of feet stomping down the trail woke me from a deep slumber. It was still dark. I checked my watch. 4:15 am?!?

I pulled my quilt over my face and attempted to fall back asleep. Between the hours of 4:15 am and 6 am, an additional 15 hikers marched by my campsite.

It has come to my attention (because people keep pointing it out to me) that I hiked more miles per day than most folks out here. Even so, I rarely feel the need to start hiking earlier than 7 am. It is a puzzle to me why nearly everyone else out here are such early risers. I’m sure my sleep schedule is as confusing to them as theirs are to me.

Thanks to the miles I’d covered last night after the water cache (and after running away from the ants), I only had about 16 miles to go to reach Walker Pass.

Walker Pass is a paved road crossing, and the resupply access point to several towns, of varying distances from the trail. The closer towns of Onyx, Lake Isabella, and Inyokern have fewer services but are easier to hitch to. The further towns of Kernsville and Ridgecrest have many amenities but require long, multi-part hitches with turns on multiple highways. I intentionally carried enough food from Tehachapi to skip this resupply point. But a restaurant meal sounded mighty tempting.

Swish and I decided we would go to one of the closer towns and grab a snack if the hitch was easy. We arrived at the water cache near Walker Pass, just as a trail angel, Sergio, was restocking it. As we walked up, Sergio asked us if we were headed to town. We quickly told Sergio that, yes, we were headed to town and would love a ride. We piled into his car with another hiker who arrived just before us.

We were so eager to accept a ride, that we hadn’t bothered checking which of the several towns Sergio was taking us to. As we drove, it became apparent (via Google maps) that he was taking us to Ridgecrest – 25 miles away, involving multiple turns on different highways. To say the least, hitching back might be interesting. But that would be a problem for later.

Once in town, we headed to Lugo’s restaurant for sandwiches and sodas. I also filled up my water bottles in the restaurant bathroom, washed my face, and enjoyed some internet access, which has been scarce in this section. Then, Swish and I walked across the parking lot to a doughnut shop, where we split a half dozen doughnuts.

Around 3 pm, we were ready to get back on the trail. It was time to figure out how to get out of this town. We were both mentally prepared for a difficult hitch back, possibly with multiple rides due to the turns. We decided our best bet would be to walk out to the nearest highway and try to hitch the first leg from there.

As we walked towards the highway, passing the last doughnut back and forth to take bites, I half heartedly stuck out my thumb at passing cars, figuring there was a slim chance someone was headed in the direction we needed to go.

Amazingly, within 15 minutes, a woman pulled over in a white SUV.

“Hey, I saw you back at the restaurant,” she said, “I live 3 miles from the PCT at Walker Pass. Do you need a ride back to trail?”

It was amazing luck to find a ride so quickly for the entire 25 miles back to the trail! We were back at Walker Pass and hiking by 3:30 pm. Not bad for a 50-mile detour just for sandwiches and doughnuts!

After Walker Pass, the trail climbed up into the mountains a bit. It was incredibly beautiful, though my growing heel blister somewhat detracted from my enjoyment. At the end of the day, I camped in a beautiful saddle where I watched the sunset. Overall, it was a pretty relaxed day, despite having covered 26 miles!

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Day 31

It was a wonderful but uneventful day. The views, terrain, and weather were all average. But I found myself in an unusually good mood as I hiked.

Perhaps the reason for my good spirits was that I am almost done with the PCT desert. The desert has been a challenge due to the heat and water carries, and I am excited to reach more mountainous terrain. Additionally, the desert has been as hard on my feet as I was warned. I’ve already had as many blisters in the first ~700 miles of this trail as I had on the entire ~2,200-mile Appalachian Trail.

It’s also an exciting day because I’ve been on trail for one month! I’ve definitely gotten in the rhythm of trail life in the desert. However, tomorrow everything will get shaken up. I’ll be facing a whole different set of challenges and enjoying a different set of rewards as I enter the High Sierras!

Once again, I saw a ton of thru-hikers throughout the day. A few I already had met, but many were new. Notably, I met another woman also hiking in a dress named BearPop. She’s the first woman I’ve seen also hiking in a dress out here, though I’ve met two hikers wearing skirts.

The miles flew by today; Swish and I chatted a lot and walked quickly on the relatively gently-graded terrain. After 18 miles, we stopped at a creek for a long lunch, with a dozen or so other hikers.

Another 13 miles cruised by before we reached the next creek, where we ate dinner with several hikers who started the trail on April 5th – exactly 1 month before I started. It was fun to chat with them about the various parts of the trail we’ve all experienced – and hear about their experiences with snow at the beginning of their hikes. I’ve yet to see much snow on the PCT – but I know I will start seeing some soon in the Sierras.

The site by the creek was swarming with ants, mosquitoes, and lots of hikers. I opted to carry on another mile or so until I found a nice quiet, flat spot to pitch my tarp (my 5th time pitching!). Then I sat on a rocky outcrop overlooking a pretty meadow and watched the sky darken and the stars come out. All in all it was a 32 mile day – my 2nd longest day on trail! Surprisingly, it felt pretty good in my body, though I was quite ready to sleep by the end of the day.

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Day 32

Some days on trail, you gotta take the day you get, not the day you planned. Today was one of those.

Even so, I accomplished both of my main goals for the day. They were:

• First, eat pancakes for breakfast.
• Second, get in and out of Kennedy Meadows in one day without getting “vortexed” into staying the night.

I hit the trail early this morning, before 6 am, which is rare for me! The motivation: breakfast! Rumor has it that the Kennedy Meadows General Store offers a bottomless pancake breakfast until 9 am. Needless to say I felt very motivated to hike the 9 miles there quickly! I even hiked in my pjs as there was no time to get dressed… And because I couldn’t bear to put on my extremely crusty, sweat-stained hiking dress.

The trail was a beautiful and mostly flat meadow this morning and I flew through my miles in just over 2 hours. I reached the General Store just after 8 am, and the pancake breakfast was even better than I’d dreamed: coffee, juice, fruit, hash browns, bacon, eggs, and all-you-can-eat blueberry pancakes all for $12!

The General Store was an absolute zoo, with maybe 30-40 hikers sitting around on the porch enjoying breakfast. Everyone on the porch cheers each time a new hiker walks up the road to the store. I felt a little overwhelmed by the huge number of hikers around me. There are way more people than I’ve seen so far any day on trail. The crowds got even more intense when I took a shuttle 4 miles down the road to Grumpy Bear’s – packed into a car with 10 hikers that should have fit maybe 7 people tops.

Grumpy Bear’s is a big property with a restaurant, hiker campground, showers, laundry, and a big patio. It’s a “vortex” (a place where hikers end up taking unplanned days off and overspending) for thru-hikers before they enter the Sierras. Some hikers stay at Grumpy Bear’s for several nights. I was only there to pick up my bear can, microspikes, warmer layers, and ice ax – which I’d mailed there. The crowds at Grumpy Bear’s were even more intense than the general store – with maybe 50 hikers around the restaurant and patio, and many more in the little tent city behind the restaurant. I rushed through doing laundry and showering, feeling a bit of culture shock after spending so much time alone in the wilderness.

Due to the crowds, I had to get on a waiting list to receive my package. I also got on a waiting list to shop at Triple Crown Outfitters – a small gear and food shop next to Grumpy Bear’s where hikers can resupply food. With all the waiting in lines, I’m feeling less like a PCT thru-hiker and more like a tourist at Disney World.

Due to the long lines, I quickly realized that my goal of catching the 2 pm shuttle back to the trail wasn’t looking reasonable. Oh well. There’d be another shuttle at 5 pm.

After resupplying, it was time to “play Tetris”. By which I mean figure out how to squeeze my bear can and other Sierra-specific gear additions into my 36-liter pack. It all fit – though barely!

I forgot to eat lunch amid all the chaos of resupplying. I felt pretty overwhelmed and hangry by the time I finished my chores. I grabbed a quick burger at Grumpy Bear’s then caught the 5 pm shuttle back to the trail. I only hiked two miles because I ran into trail magic at a campground! Trail angels Legend and Bianca had a campsite with a fire and big spaghetti dinner for hikers to enjoy! So I decided to kick back, relax, and stay the night there. But tomorrow, Sierras here I come!