DAY 45: JOSHUA TREE PRISON

miles: 20

Joshua Trees. A day of Joshua trees, exposed trail, and skin scorching, blood boiling sun.

Robin Bird Spring was a luxury we wouldn't forget, it would be our last natural spring water for many, many miles. In the morning, while everyone was groggily packing their packs, a sudden, loud sound and what do we see? A cow jumping the fence to get to the spring. Two of them. They were successful!

Cows... can jump.

Squeaks, having grown up on a farm, knew how to handle them when she went into the enclosed spring area and had success in clearing them out. I guess... it wasn't as pristine a water source as I thought...

I will say that the hiking was easy in the morning... We were fooled! The first half of the day brought cool pine forests that resembled the Sierras! As we cruised along for a few miles, we officially entered the desert (again).

Here are some photos from this morning:

Lunchbox enjoying the ACTUAL GRASS.

It got hot.

Suddenly this was the scenery:

Hey there desert, haven't seen you in a while.

Water Cache stocked by Mary!

We got to the water cache (stocked by Mary - thank you thank you thank you Mary!) and filled up. It would be a night of dry camping and running to the next cache tomorrow morning. However, it was too hot to keep hiking so we spotted a joshua tree (the lone joshua tree) in the distance and lumbered up the hill towards it, only to find about 5 other hikers already posted there! We would all fit under the shade of this tree and we would wait out the heat of the day.

All of us hiding under the tree.

Happy Hour, Squeaks, Viking, Dr. Slosh, Smiles, Ben, Angela, Starfox, and I would cram together under the few ounces of shade, for 5 hours. Eventually, we hung tarps to assist in the shade process, which was great for keeping the sun off of our skin, but mostly just cooked us in an oven.

The oven.

Viking sleeping under the Joshua Tree. 

Angela sleeping.

Sweat, sand, sticky, dirty feet, we languidly lounged cozily, huddled together under the joshua tree until the late afternoon. Our goal was to get to Willow Creek by dusk a few miles away.

As it cooled down (sooooo slightly) we slowly packed up and got a move on.

Climbing climbing climbing, it was too hot to climb still, but we carried on anyway, anxious to get to camp. The landscape was dramatic and gorgeous as dusk approached. We made it to camp just in time for dark to fall and there was even a picnic table for dinner. A nice family dinner commenced.

Even Dr. Slosh and Smiles were there taking a break! Even though they had to move on and make more miles that night...

What the sweaty back of everyone's shirt looks like at the end of the day.

Din.

Sour Cream having a good time with Mac N Cheez.

Cookin'.

Ben be eatin' some string cheese and his nightly protein shake. 

Sunset Dinner.

Our camp spot.

DAY 44: COWS

miles: 19

Last night we were hiking into the dark. Headlamps flipped on, ankles began to roll, and stumbling became a serious hazard. We had no choice but to make it to Golden Oaks Spring, for we were low on water.

In the desert, your miles per day are dictated by water sources. It becomes a little bit like a treasure hunt. A life or death treasure hunt. Must find the water, must camp near the water, must make it there.

The night hiking had been pleasant up up until the last few miles (it's always those last few miles!) where I began to regularly roll my ankle. The last few miles of every day are the longest miles, let me tell you.

Today we were to make it to Robin Bird Spring by nightfall, nineteen miles away. My mood was slightly elevated and I woke up motivated. Golden Oaks Spring was a mere trickle, at probably .25 liters per minute. About 15 hikers were camped there and everyone waited in line for their turn to fill up their water bottles and bladders. I was thankful for the trickle, though. I prefer not to have to filter water from a stagnant trough (which is what this water source will be in a few weeks).

My camera and phone died at some point today so I did not get a lot of photos, however, it wasn't very remarkable scenery so it's not that much of a bummer. We motored along in the heat, stopping in the shade several times. Also, there were more trees today, so it wasn't as exposed and hot as usual, which we were grateful for. 

Casa de Oso.

This photo: Everyone gathering in a circle for din. The trail has gotten seemingly more populated the past few days, which actually has been nice. I love seeing familiar faces at the end of a hard day and recounting our experiences. Starfox, Happy Hour and Squeaks are featured above.

Ben Cooking Dinner.

What our hands look like.

Lunchbox with his box wine he packed out. 

I would like to call this the day of cows. Cows strewn about everywhere along the trail, staring at you from distant (and near) fields, eyeing you from the trail itself (not budging) and constant cow pies on the trail. We made it to Robin Bird Spring at 5pm (early!) and were pleased to find ourselves in a position to set up camp early, wash our bodies, organize our things, and stretch leisurely. The spring itself was heaven - crisp, cold, flowing at a great rate and close to the trail. It is surrounded by barbed wire and wooden fencing to keep the cows out (minimizes the cow contamination).

Cow Poop. By our water.

DAY 43: HIGH WAY BUMMIN'

My view for 2 hours while I waited for my crew to "slack-pack" the first 8 miles of our day today.

miles: 24 (I did 16)

Mad dash out of bed, 5:00am wake-up (never again when staying in a hotel room - it was painful to get out of bed that early when you are sunken into soft sheets and pillows). Headed down to the continental breakfast (I'm such a grump when I don't get more than 5 hours of sleep) and squinted at the food, not quite yet hungry. Last night had been a late one. Ben and I were rushing to get our things cleaned, packed, and loaded into our packs and by the time we were done, it was midnight! And we had to be up at 5:00/5:30.

Jane had agreed to come back in the morning and pick us up from the hotel at 6:00am (so sweet of her) even though she lives 45 minutes outside of town. I can't believe the kindness of Trail Angels. Complete strangers helping complete strangers!

I had agreed to be dropped off 8 miles further than the rest of my team in order to let them "slack-pack". Slack packing is when you can hike a portion of miles without your entire backpack (which is often 30-40lbs) - just bringing water and snacks. Jane dropped Rocky, Chik Chak, Sour Cream and Starfox off where we left off at Willow-Springs Road and she drove me to Highway 58 where I would unload all of their gear and backpacks and sit with it, waiting for them to do their easy (backpackless) miles.

Does this make sense?

So basically, yes, I skipped 8 miles (gladly) and took one for the team. Once Jane dropped me off, I was confronted with a shade-less stretch of highway roadside. I was to sit here for 2+ hours yet.... there was not one sliver of shade. The freeway was intense and hot and I walked up the slope to the trail and noticed a small patch of shade near some low shrubs. I parked it there, hugging the shrub, but soon realized it smelled like urine. Intensely urine.

I moved to the shade of a sign post - which worked! Although I was baking, I could not complain because at least I was not walking, and I could just relax for a few more hours, organizing my maps, studying the next section, all the while, watching the distant horizon for my wolf pack.

LUCKILY - Lunchbox arrived shortly after me and I had company! He also skipped the 8 miles and decided to keep me company while we waited for everyone.

Note: We call ourselves the "wolf pack", it's a loose team name.

Everyone eventually arrived and we set off together, parallel to the highway, single file. Cars rushed by, often with a hoot and a holler such as "hiker trash!" "YEAHHHHHHH" or "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo"! Celebrities along a hot highway in southern California, even the cars passing by are familiar with who we are. They must be used to seeing us "trash".

(Hiker Trash is a common 'endearing' term used to describe us thru-hikers, and I must say, it is very fitting)

Single file highway walkin' wolf pack.

Hot.

I didn't get any photos from our Siesta this day, but I do have some photos on my real camera. Because it got boiling hot by 10am, we were forced to hide under the highway overpass in the shade of the bridge for 4 hours. We got hiking again at 3pm and still had 16 miles to go! It was to be a long night.

Struggling with the heat, the weight of my full pack, and the rested body of someone who just had a day off, I had an unbelievably hard time with the climb out of Tehachapi. I would actually say - it was one of my lowest days. I winced with each step, huffed and puffed (for no reason!) and bordered on mental breakdown for a few hours. So badly, I wanted to turn back and crawl into the Best Western bed, it's all I fantasized about.

"this is optional" was my mantra. It kept me going - knowing that at any point I really COULD say "fuck it" and retire for the day/section/week. This was something I was choosing to do, it was not required, and once I realized this, it made it easier for me to move on because - yes, this is what I wanted to be doing.

The battles, the loops, the struggles in your head while you walk - those can be your worst enemy out here.

The trail this particular afternoon. Joshua trees, sandy path, shrubbery. I love this environment, I really do - it was just extremely hot.

The sunset.

A fire was burning to the south of us (perhaps you all heard about it on the news?). The Powerhouse fire? Near Green Valley, CA this fire was burning, hikers and an entire community were evacuated, and it produced a lot of smoke. We could see the smoke to the south of us and it made for some really gorgeous sunsets and sunrises...

Ben with more windmills. This time in a creepy burned forest at dusk.

DAY 42: ZERO DONE RIGHT

miles: 0

Tehachapi is wonderful.

Ben and I (along with plenty of other thru-hikers) stayed in the Best Western - which is luxury! Continental breakfast, free wi-fi (that actually works) and computers down in the lobby to use for free and for however long we want.

Usually when I'm used to waking up at 5:00am everyday, it is hard to sleep in past 6 or 7 but today we woke up at 9:00. WONDERS.

The main event today was shopping. Grocery shopping. The goal: to plan out how many days of food we need between each of the next 4 sections of trail coming up and shop shop shop. There is an Albertson's in town AND a K-Mart which made this task easier, however, Tehachapi is extraordinarily stretched out which makes walking everywhere to do our chores very difficult.

We marched to the Albertson's and spent a good hour and a half (or 2) there deliberating, shopping, and generally being stressed out. The task of shopping for 24 days worth of food was DAUNTING but we managed to do it without anyone having a mental breakdown. In fact, we all stayed in good humor...

Sour Cream and Chik Chak (A.J.)

Almost overflowing cart full of junk.

We shopped with our backpacks on, knowing we'd likely have to walk the mile + back to the hotel room with all of our food.

Chik Chak with the jelly.

Hadn't been to an Albertson's in forever! This photo features my backpack full of groceries along with the 6 bags of food extra just hangin' outside of the store. Waiting to see if someone might offer us a ride back to the hotel.

There were plenty of people in the store who recognized us as thru-hikers and inquired about our journey and were overall VERY FRIENDLY! I chatted with a few women in line while checking out who had a lot of questions and it was a lot of fun to talk about what we're doing.

Eventually we gave up trying to yogi a ride to our hotel room and settled on walking along the Boulevard, Ben with his shopping cart. Here is Sour Cream, Rocky, Chik Chak, and Starfox along Tehachapi Blvd.

The next hour was spent frantically organizing our days of food in our respective hotel rooms, on the floor. The Post Office was the next stop and we had one hour to divide our meals, bag 'em up and lug them downstairs to our ride (JANE! A local Trail Angel who drives hikers to and from the trail and the Post Office in town!!) in 1 hour. We had one hour to complete this monumental task.

But we made it. Jane arrived and we loaded into her vehicle and she kindly drove us to the Post Office and waited for us outside while we packaged everything into Priority Mail boxes, labeled them, taped them up, and waited in line to send them. This was HUGE! THANK YOU JANE! I don't know how we would have done it without Jane. The P.O. was WAY on the other side of town, and we had probably 70lbs worth of food each...

Here is Ben frantically scribbling addresses on boxes on the P.O. floor.

Once this task was done, we got to relax and have some down time at the hotel: more jacuzzi time, beers, and bed.

Tomorrow we head back out onto the dusty trail.

UPDATE

Real quick: sorry I've been out of touch but I have not had service since our last zero day in Tehachapi... We are alive and well! Heading into town after our first section of high Sierras. I will be feverishly catching you all up on day 41 - 56... Look for these posts over the next few days! Miss you all at home.

DAY 40: SAND.

miles: 24

Sandblasted.

Worst night on the trail so far.

Last night, despite falling asleep soundly (so cozy), we were awoken to the horrific sound of 70 mile per hour wind smashing into the side of our tent. We had been very careful to set up our tent with the wind direction in mind, but the wind had shifted 90 degrees in the night and was literally flattening the tent onto my body. I panicked and sat up, insinctively reaching an arm out to stabilize the tent wall. I had managed to knock the trekking pole, that was helping to stabilize the tent, out of place in the night, so that definitely contributed to the collapse, however, when I went to grab the pole, I stabbed it through the tent, creating a neat hole in the mesh.

Fuck.

Ben heard this, and was very displeased and disoriented, having just woke up out of a deep sleep himself. Hurricane force winds. Seriously.

So I open the mesh and release the mountain of sand that was blowing in from the west. Sand is flying at 70mph into the tent, abrading my face, filling my sleeping bag, scouring our belongings. I realize that the sand was flying in even before I unzipped the mesh and it was futile to zip up because the debris was still shovelling in.

Near tears, panick, are we going to be buried alive?

I'm frozen, I have no idea what to do next. The sand is entering the tent at a fast rate, sweeping across our sleeping bags and filling every orifice. I am near tears... do we hike on? We've been asleep for 3 hours... maybe that is enough rest to get us to the Cottonwood Creek Bridge, 12 miles away? Hiking 12 miles in the middle of the night sounded like a luxury compared to what we were experiencing.

We fixed the trekking pole and somewhat re-stabilized the tent, but it was difficult to lay back down, knowing the sand was literally filling our tent.

I get tired enough to doze in and out of sleep, positive I would collapse if I tried walking 12 miles, having down 25 miles the previous day. If we had walked 12 more miles that night, we would have done 37 miles in 24 hours - that is insane. I made a decision to try and wait out the sand storm, while every 15 minutes I would hear, from Ben, "Should we get up? Can we pack up and get the hell out of here?"

It was tempting, and I have to admit, I did sit up multiple times and seriously consider hiking out. But I knew that if the wind was so bad it was collapsing our tent (Ben also had to get up and re-stake the tent in the hurricane force winds - pushing the stakes into the SAND) that it was bad enough to make hiking unejoyable, if not downright IMPOSSIBLE.

Worst. Night. Of. My. Life.

Eventually I fell asleep.

In the morning the tent was filled with an inch of sand, my sleeping bag was dusted with sand sheen... it was so hot in the night that I shed all of my clothing which made the sandy sleeping bag even worse because I woke up feeling like I fell asleep in on the beach - the sand embedded in my leg skin...

SO, morning finally arrives and Ben and I frantically pack up our sandy shit. Starfox, Angela, and Busted slept GREAT and had no issues with the wind blowing sand into their eyes, mouth, and ears. In fact, they had a fantastic night! Sour Cream on the other hand, had not had a very good night... his tent collapsed multiple times AND he was vomiting.

Apparently quite few people had gotten sick the night after hiker town.

Even though S. Cream was sick, everyone broke camp and was out of there well before Ben and I.

Then the butt chafe.

I was not in a good mood for the first half of the day.

This was the first day I questioned what the fuck I was doing out here on the trail, actually. Not in a serious way - I would never get off of the trail voluntarily - but I definitely have never felt so defeated by the elements. Every inch of my had a layer of sand and grit making movement uncomfortable. I had chafe in more places than one (for the first time) and I was simply degraded. I had been feeling insanely lethargic the past few days (for no reason) and just needed a break. A mental break. And it was nowhere in sight.

As Ben and I started walking, my mood boosted slightly, as we listened to Snap Judgement and continued to walk the aqueduct, which is now not only covered, but a cement "road" of sorts. There were alarmingly eerie blood drips the entire duration of the trail this morning. Was it a bleeding animal? A human? Why was it so fresh and shiny?

Starfox on the aqueduct.

We made it to Cottonwood Creek Bridge by 11am and took did some serious napping.

I don't know if I've mentioned the "burning cold" but in the shade it's hypothermia freezing, and in the sun it is burning hot - it's the phenomenon of the desert!

So I tried to nap in the shade but was shivering, periodically grabbing inappropriate things from my pack to place over me as a blanket (like my neo air, my stuff sacks, solar charger....) but then moved to the sun to nap and was scalded. So.....

I didn't take a nap, but took photos of everyone who did.

Hikers under a bridge.

Lunchbox napping.

It was a nice place to relax, under the bridge. Under bridges is a common place for hiker gatherings. No wonder bums gather under bridges, I understand now, seriously.

We hiked on at 3pm (after waiting for the heat of the day to die down) and made it across the rest of the Mojave. We've been walking through wind turbines for a day now, and today was no different. The windmills are insane! The huge-ness of them is astounding!

It started climbing.

And climbing.

And climbing.

Luckily, it wasn't hot because the wind was cool. The wind got stronger and stronger as we went up in elevation. It got to the point where the wind was so strong that we couldn't stand up straight in it. We leaned into it with our trekking poles (used as crutches) and walked in a 90 degree body angle into the wind. It was brutal, to be honest.

Spirits were high, though.

We had planned on doing a 26 mile day in order to set ourselves up for a 9 mile walk into the next town the following morning. Tehachapi was only a few miles away, and we love to get into town early so we can eat breakfast at a diner.

Ended up making it 24 miles, so we had 11 left to hike in the morning, which was probably a good decision. Ben and I (surprisingly) had a fantasticly sheltered spot (safe from wind tonight - thankfully) behind some shrubs, up on a ridge. We cowboy camped there and it was really... a nice night. From my sleeping bag I had a view of the stars, the surrounding wind farms 2,000 feet below in the desert, and a view of the large town of Lancaster, California, glistening in the night. I felt at ease.