Miles Hiked: 16.8
PCT Mileage: 583.3
We all wanted to get back on trail early this morning but since we had to wait for the post office to open at 10am that didn’t happen. I enjoyed sleeping in and eating a grapefruit for breakfast. Kathy drove us to Tehachapi where we stopped at the post office to send out resupply boxes to towns in the Sierra. I sent one box to a place called VVR or Vermillion Valley Resort. I have to pay $30 to pick up the box but it will be delivered to me one mile off the trail in the Sierra. I’d spend more money going into and out of a town in that spot anyways. Plus it is brought up into the mountains for me! I’m excited to pick up the box. I included a few drinks I’ll hopefully be excited to share with people.
It was 11:30am by the time we all got back on the trail. The second we stepped out of the car the wind was blowing insanely hard. Pippin did mention that the weather app had a wind advisory for the day. As we walked up the paved road to cross the highway, my hat blew off my head and I had to chase it a ways. The trail followed the highway for a mile or two before zig zagging up the desert hills covered in Joshua trees. The wind just kept getting worse and worse. It felt like I had to fight for every step I took. A couple times I almost got knocked over. It was fun at first but then it got so irritating that I was angry. I hiked with Fry and Lumber Jack. All three of us had to take off our hats because we had them so tight on our heads they were giving us a headache. The wind was so strong it would have just blown off our hats anyways. Eventually I just sat down to take a break from the wind in some bushes. I made my first veggie wrap and I was super excited to eat it on the trail! It was fantastic.
I left the break spot before everyone else and pushed on the camp. The wind didn’t stop all day and I had a constant chill. I was wearing my raincoat to help with the wind. Eventually I remembered my banana dress in my backpack and put it on since it was so chilly I could wear it! I passed by a few more windmills on my way to camp at the water source. The water source was called Golden Oak Spring. It was a spring contained in a cement tub filled with algae and croaking frogs. One part of it had less vegetation on top and that’s where I scooped my water from. It was funny to me to watch everyone else cringe at the water source when I’ve drank from far worse. These hikers don’t know what truly disgusting water is. It filtered clear and tasted great! I waited just over an hour for everyone else to see if they wanted to camp here or push on for the night. It was already 7pm by the time they got there so we set up camp. I didn’t mind because I looked ahead and saw that we only had to do two 25 mile days to make it to Ridgecrest early in the afternoon on the day we wanted to get there.
We all set up a cowboy camp together in the middle of a bunch of other hikers. It was a lot of fun. The evening was chilly and I wished that I didn’t send my pants ahead to Kennedy Meadows. The nearby windmills were making wooshing sounds which was a great white noise to listen to!
Happy Trails!
-Early Bird
Des Hikes Thru 