5/24/14 Saturday Hiking in a Wind Farm. 5/25/14 Sunday Enough With the Wind! 5/26/14 Monday Hiding Under Bushes Waiting to be Rescued!

Our tent placement worked well last night and we were comfortably shielded from wind. While packing up this morning we caught this gorgeous sunrise with Joshua trees in silhouette.  

We set the alarm for 4:45, trying to catch the cooler morning weather to hike in, we were walking by 5:55.  Skies were slightly overcast and much cooler than we expected with a slight breeze.  There are small groups of hikers on the trail this morning, some that we recognize from being at Hikertown yesterday.  There are two men doing a thru hike together, one is from Medford so we exchanged phone  numbers to catch up with each other after September.

The aqueduct has become a concrete covered roadway so we walk beside it on the maintenance track.  Every now and again vehicles pass us and I wonder what brings people  out here, it feels inhospitable, desolate and harsh but there are homes sprinkled about.  We passed one man walking his dogs in the evening, wind blowing like crazy, he and his dogs were out for a stroll!

This morning we found a cooler marked PCT that had tea and water in it. 

Four of us stopped for a drink chatting and resting.  We later found out a vacationing family was having fun stocking it.

I'm wearing my sun clothing, the hat has a drape to keep the sun from burning me and it also has kept wind from driving grit into my face.  

I've been told here's a safety on the wind turbines so they don't turn if the wind is over 65 mph. 

There is a water cache we are aiming for this morning, it's supplied by Bob from Hikertown.  He pulls a trailer with a 50 gallon drum on the back and stations it beside a bridge where the PCT intersects. 

This is the PCT on the cement covered aqueduct that runs through the wind turbine farm.  Eventually we will cross this flat valley and climb the hills beyond it. 

We thought this sign was funny, such danger and hazard won't affect the PCT hiker!  By this time we've been 1.5 days in the wind and getting tired of fighting to stay upright, getting sandblasted, living with grit in our teeth.  Putting sunscreen on over grit is disgusting, trying to find a place to rest gets harder.  We arrived at the water cache and got 1 liter each then scooted down the embankment to the wonderful shade the bridge created. Except it was windy down there too.  Peggy wrapped her Tyvek tent footprint around her to try to get a nap.  Other hikers came in, sat against the pillars to eat a snack and rest.  We all looked like dirty hobos.  Peggy & I decided that all these hikers were going to the same place, the only water in 17.5 miles, Tylerhorse Canyon.  So in spite of the heat, we left at 1:00 to get some miles done.

The rest of the day was a constant climb in the relentless wind, once we sat on the base of a turbine in it's shade and made reservations for a motel in Mojave, our next stop.  Peggy called her Stepmom and made plans for she & Peggy's Dad to meet us at Hwy 58 and take us to Mojave for our resupply. iPhones are a wonderful invention!

 I did see 2 white tail deer trot out of a small draw and go over the hill directly across from me.  These are the  only animals except a rabbit I've seen in days.

Finally we reached the lip of the canyon and dropped over it, winding quickly down.  I saw groups of colorful clothing and tents down where a 12" wide trickle of water ran.  We'd finally gotten to our destination.  There must be about 20 of us here,  most are staying but some only got water and moved on. I had thought the canyon would be shielded from the wind but no such luck.  We anchored our tent stakes with the biggest rocks we found and it was fortunate that we did.  All night long the wind howled, our tents bent and twisted in the onslaught and by morning we were covered in a fine layer of grit.  I finally slept with a bandana over my face.

 Our hair is caked with salt, our hands are dirty and even the tips of our fingers are getting brown, we have to remind each other to put sunscreen on our fingertips because they stick out of our sun proof gloves. We have dirt and sweat rings on our clothing, moleskin and KT tape on our feet, we sit for a time each night and make sure our feet are in good enough shape to carry us the next day.  Shoes get inspected for gritty rocks that could make a blister. We actually have conversation with our feet and toes: "how are you doing?  look at all the dust in that sock, let's get you cleaned up."  By now I'm sure we're both a little loopy. 

We put in 16 miles today.

5/25/14 Sunday.  17.5 miles

Not much sleep was had last night, the wind suddenly stopped at 4am and we were up packing at 4:45, it's going to be a long hot day much like yesterday. 

I topped off my water for the climb up out of the canyon and over this range of mountains.

This is Peggy coming down the trail, the landscape is what we've been hiking in for days.

 It's a cloudless, hot day and all of the hikers are moving out,  as I looked at the back trail they look like little dots of color moving along the hillsides. Most will eventually pass us.

Topping the range I looked back on what we'd come through in the last 2 days, 

the flat valley, the wind turbines and all in between. 

After 10 miles we arrived at a water cache supplied by two men from Tehachapi,  it was located in another burn area, they had lawn chairs, cases of bottled water,  garbage bags and a trail register.  The water was very welcome and we sat with three young men for awhile before we moved on.  There was virtually no shade so we had our umbrellas up.  I watched a ground hog emerge from his hole, buck- teeth first and peer around.  He disappeared again when anyone moved. I'm never sure what inhabits the holes all over the landscape.  Could be snakes or lizards but now I know some are gophers!

The burn area is sometimes very stark and black but there were lovely carpets of colorful flowers in a few places. Their scent was wonderful.

This side of the mountains had more evergreen trees.

A flower we've not seen before.

This is the Mojave area we are hiking down into, it looks much like all the other desert we've been through, wind turbines and all.   We watched two gliders catching thermals, wheeling higher and higher in the sky while we rested near a downed tree. 

Our goal is to make the next water cache  where there may be a campsite. Due to the exposure and heat it's going to be a tough hike but it will put us into position to meet Peggy's Dad & Stepmom at the highway crossing going to Mojave. 

We rested or napped in whatever shade we could find, one has to be creative in this environment, a downed tree, a bush you can crawl under, anything works. 

Around 5:30 we stumbled into the canyon leading to the Tehachapi Willows Road where there was a water cache and this big shady oak tree.  One young lady was fast asleep in the dirt when we arrived but after we'd gotten water she was awake and hiking to the road to hitch to town.  We had the tree all to ourselves.  Once the tents were up we each collapsed and lay still taking stock of our sore, wind beaten selves.  Eventually dinner was made & consumed, beds were made, etc and without much conversation we drifted to sleep to the dull roar of wind turbines overhead.  We have 9 miles to hike tomorrow to meet Peggy's family. 

5/26/14 Monday 

Up again at 4:45 we are hiking at almost 6am.  I'm having trouble keeping my thoughts positive. I think I've reached my limit of wind, sand and sun. I'm looking forward to respite, water, sheets, water, food, water. You get the idea. 

Peggy is descending into a small valley, with turbines all around us,  I liked the contrast is size.  She's the dot below the greenery in the center of the frame.

It took us a couple of hours to get to the Highway, here's Peggy looking down on the interchange.  Also note the next set of mountains we have to climb to get out of here. More wind, sun and desert.

We found a bush with shade underneath where we waited for Linda & Ed Rice.  While waiting we once again met Salt & Pepper, a gentleman from Montreal doing a thru hike.  We've been seeing him for the past week but as we take two zero days here, he'll be hiking north.  We took photos and shook hands goodbye.

One if the pleasures of the hike is meeting so many really nice, interesting people. Enjoy your hike, Salt & Pepper!

 

Shortly after 11am Linda & Ed Rice drove up as we leaped from the roadside bushes like vagrants!  In a flash our packs were stowed and our dirty selves were in the back seat flying down the road with air conditioning going, it was 93 degrees outside. Linda had put together care packages for us, full of fresh juicy fruit, cookies, drinks, all of it right out of our food fantasy!  We dug right in once we'd checked into our Motel.  We then collected our resupply boxes, showered, did laundry and off to lunch we went wearing an odd assortment of whatever we had that was reasonably clean & not being washed!

Back from lunch we organized our food, washed cooking implements and water bottles, made a list of supplies needing to be purchased and went shopping using the Rice's car.  We've decided to add another resupply stop between here and Kennedy Meadows.  We had planned to carry 9 days of food but the need to carry 4 L (8#) of water had us concerned.  We've decided to split our food, carry 6 days and hitch into Lake Isabella to pick up the 3 days of food that we've repackaged. We'll mail a box to ourselves from here in Mojave. 

Many of our chores finished we had a delightful  dinner with Linda & Ed, it was relaxing, full of good food and conversation.  The plan is to meet for breakfast tomorrow, after which they will drive back home to LA. 

We went to sleep to the sound of our air conditioner instead of wind turbines.