Mile 704.6, Day 62

Day 53 – Day 57 Tehachapi to Walker Pass (5/20 – 5/24):

We met the nicest trail angel in Tehachapi named Jason who let us stay in his house and meet his family, so we ended up having a lovely double zero! He had the cutest black kitten named Ollie and we got to watch Netflix for the first time since starting trail! The climb out of Tehachapi was tough because we had 5 days of food and 5 liters of water. We had an early camp night and played gin rummy and got to hang out. The four of us LOVE early camps. This stretch had both long water carrys and subpar water sources that made it even tougher.

On the day we hit 600 miles we got trail magic TWICE! A trail angel named Papa Bear had fresh cold fruit on a random forest road, and at camp a man named Old Yeller had chips and beer! Kerrie must have manifested the trail magic, because the quote of the day was “I had a dream I went to a library and it was an all-you-can-eat buffet” -Kerrie that morning.

It finally feels like we’re close to the Sierra and finishing up the desert (finally)! However, the day after we had beautiful pine trees that gave us a taste of the Sierra, we encountered the most grueling desert section yet! Long exposed climbs, Joshua trees as the only shade source, deep sand, and upper 80s/low 90s temps. While it was a doozy of a last section, it did provide for some awesome desert sunsets and beautiful ‘classic’ desert scenery.

We got into a pickle that we know we shouldn’t have done: we relied on a water cache during a 40 mile dry stretch. But honestly, there’s no way we could ever carry enough water for 40 miles of extremely hot desert hiking and a dry camp, so we can’t beat ourselves up too much. It turns out that the amount of people that altered their speed to hit the aqueduct segment for the lunar eclipse created a mega bubble bigger than the trail angels have ever seen, and the water cache went dry way earlier than it should have. We didn’t feel comfortable continuing on with the amount of water that we had left, so we decided to hike out on a fire road and hitch into the nearest town, skipping the next 20 dry miles. It turned out that the trail angel that maintains the water cache was nice enough to bring some water late that night, but we had already made our decision to exit. Lesson learned! But also we won’t have to deal with water caches and long water carries once we’re in the Sierra!! A super nice trail angel named Mike let us stay on his property that night. It was modeled after an old west town and we enjoyed little caesar’s pizza in the saloon.

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WEEK 8 STATS

• Week 8 Miles: 81.1 miles
• Week 8 Average Miles: 11.6/day
• Total Miles: 630.8 miles
• Total Average Miles: 11.3/day
• Resupplies: 1
• Showers: 1
• Favorite Trail Foods: fresh garlic in dinners, cheese sticks for breakfast, honey mustard pretzels, bacon mac n cheese, ramen
• Least Favorite Trail Foods: sweaty salami, sweaty cheese, cold dinner

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Day 58 – Day 62 Walker Pass to Kennedy Meadows, plus Double Zero (5/25 – 5/29):

Our last official desert section!! The trail angel dropped us off at Walker Pass and we began a grueling exposed climb with weather in the upper 80s/low 90s. This stretch involved a lot of elevation gain and decline each day as it got more mountainous, yet still blasted us with exposed desert heat. One quote of the day was “we are walking through the butt crack of the sierra” -Kerrie and I (because we are technically beginning the sierra mountain range even though it’s still desert).

The last official day of the desert section we got our first view of the Sierra mountains, got to swim in the Kern River (only our 3rd opportunity to dunk in the whole desert), and received capri sun trail magic! Arriving at Kennedy Meadows was everything I imagined. Everyone cheered for us, and I got goosebumps! Kennedy Meadows is at Mile 702 and it marks the end of the desert section and the beginning of the Sierra section, so it’s a big milestone on trail. We got to see a lot of friends from the trail that we hadn’t seen for awhile because most hikers rest for a few days before tackling the Sierra. Ryan and Billy came to visit and we had a blast car camping and cooking gourmet dinners! We took 2 zeroes and set out to tackle the Sierra! I’m so excited.

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