Day 42 - Push to Tehachapi

Mile 549.7 to 566.5 (hwy 58) - 16.8 miles

Up early on our windy ridge. Make coffee from our tent. The stakes had pulled up from our respective rainfly vestibules and was flapping. Instead of getting up to search for the stakes and reset it, we just tucked the flaps under our tent below our sleeping pads, and held tight that way. Luckily at dawn it was not that hard to find our stakes. Success. Wehadnt feared rain that night, but we thought we would try to keep sand and dust from pushing through our mesh all night with it. We have the big Agnes copper spur II, so though it is a double walled tent (tent with separate rain fly) the tent body is nearly all mesh with only a solid bathtub floor which saves considerable weight. 
Any who, another day of hiking through wind farms. I started to go a little crazy, always feeling like we were hiking in circles. We made it to the willow springs road, which is theoretically an easier hitch into town, but we opted to continue on another 8 miles to hwy 58. Almost nobody does this I guess, but it means a much longer water haul the ext day if you don't so I don't understand why everybody bails. That next section was a bit soul sucking. It was much hotter, drab, and towards the end there were ridiculously long and shallow switchbacks down the hill. It was freaking stupid and I see now why people cut PCT switchbacks, sometimes they are absurd. I actually hated the trail at that point. Anyways, after that it was about a mile to the freeway overpass, in the middle of nowhere. As we got closer to where all the hikers were sitting, god knows why, grant spotted a car heading towards the onramp and yelled for me to stick my thumb out. I never saw the car before it had pulled over to give us a ride! Im sure that group of hikers are still talking about it. Part luck I guess (or good karma?) And part because we are only two people with a lady, or "ride bride" as we are sometimes called. grant and I really are a couple though.  Made it to the hotel, got our new shoes, and had a nice soak in the hot tub. Not a bad day really :)

Day 41 - Hiking through Windfarms is Windy, and my first "10 by 10"

Mile 529.2 to 549.7 20.5 miles

UP and attem, hiking by 0610, all morning chores complete.  Windy as all hell.  I was hell bent on getting my first 10 by 10 in (ten miles by 10am). I had come close before.  Grant had to keep stopping to address his blisters, but I really wanted to charge on, so I left him (knowing he had enough water, come on, I would never leave him to die in the desert, and for god's sakes, it's blisters, and people are always walking by, well, not that day, but i would have gone back for him, and I had goals!!! Fueled by the first marathon of my life, I became a callous person, but you know)  Ok, well, I got my ten by ten, but it was at the cost of our relationship...Not totally, we hugged and made up, then hiked on. We've been together for 14 years, we tend to repair our rifts quickly.
Hiked on through wind so strong it was blowing me off the trail. Not too scary, but a tad annoying and challenging.  Made it to our water source, where we saw Cavalier!!!  hahaha, we had caught up, sort of.  He was leaving, and we were going to spend 1-2 hours at the water source.  Very funny how this trail works out though.
Had a huge lunch, trying to eat through the weight on my back. I still haven't learned how to resupply and always have waaay too much food, which equals way too much weight. Headed out of the canyon where the wind continued to blow me off the trail, but uphill, instead of down the steep hillside :)  Uphill, downhill, UP HILL. I know it's the nature of the beast, but some days you are just over it.  Made it to a water cache with chairs and apples.  We had enough water, but ate an apple and chatted with some fellas, subsisting off of food they find in hiker boxes, boiling water and making stews out of things such as couscous, mashed potatoes, and anything else, all in a big pot they share. So fun to see how other people do things.
We hiked on another half mile, and scoured the area for half an hour before we found something enough out of the wind but not next to dead trees.  Made dinner in the tent because of the wind and fatigue, then to bed.

Day 40 - Our first Marathon!!! Yes, US!

Mile 503.0 to 529.2  - 26.2 miles, oh yeah, you heard me, a marathon :)
Woke up on trail to a little more misty rain, but it seemed to settle down as we moaned and groaned. I  had had night terrors all night long, trying to scream but coming out as wimpers that Grant ignored, of course, cooly letting my be terrorized by my mind all night long...Anyhoo...
Packed up our sopping wet tent, and moved onwards.  Stopped for water at a "guzzler" which apparently is a big plastic tank partially underground with a low roof and downspout used for collecting water.  THere was water alright, and we got all the rest of our morning chores done.  Then hike hike hike, flat, wet but not raining, finally heading down out of the hills towards the Mojave Desert floor.  At about 1230 we stopped for lunch (third breakfast?  second lunch?)  and dried out our tent and rainfly, then up and hiking onwards to Hiker Town.
Hiker Town is some guys home where he built all these little bungalows to look like an old Western town.  Pretty cool.  Lots of subdued enthusiasm in the hiker lounge, aka garage.  Everybody staring at their phones, pretty weird.  Most people hike the Mojave, LA aquaduct section at night, but it was really cool that day, so we were just getting water and moving on.  Made it to the open aquaduct.  rushing cold water in the middle of the desert.  Of course, that didn't last long, as it soon went underground.  We turned Northerly and followed a branch of the aqueduct in a pipe, then turned easterly again, where it went completely underground and was just a dirt road with miles of concrete over the underground water.
At about 6pm we stopped to eat dinner before hiking on.  We checked our halfmile App on our phones and saw we had gone about 23 miles.  I said, "We are hiking a marathon today.  We can do 3.5 more miles!"  Grant agreed (well, he didn't fight it)...And we did!!!  But not a step more.  We gorilla camped on the side of the dirt road in some bushes and called it a night.

Day 39 - back on trail at upper shake campground - hangover hiking - 500 MILES!!!

Alternate Road Walk Mile 6 to 12.9 (PCT mile 493.4) - 6.9 miles

PCT mile 493.4 to 503.0 - 9.6 miles

Total miles = 16.5 all with a big fat hangover!

Got up in our ghost brothel. I looked at the maps, and decided to go back to our original plan of getting off the road walk at the earliest point, Shake Canyon, or something like that. Everybody else is road walking all the way to hikertown because it saves a ton of miles. A lot even hitched all the way to hikertown from the Anderson's, and those who didn't are roadwalking something like 20 miles. Some need to get to Tehachapi before memorial day weekend closes the post office, etc...we are sending our stuff to a hotel, so no problems for us. We are, however, meeting Grant's dad up at Walker Pass on the 30th, so being behind schedule and "adding" miles means we will have to hoof it the next week.
We say goodbye to our road walking friends at our turnoff for the trail, 4.4 more miles down the road, sitting around drinking warm beers from the night before, when a huge rattle snake came slithering past us. Yuck! I jump up out of the way, while our friends scrambled to get a picture. It gaves us one little rattle and kept on going. Now I can't say I was the first person to hike the PCT without seeing a rattlesnake, but I'm glad I finally saw my first one.  Now the next one won't be as scary.
Walking up to join the trail was not bad. It is very sad more people are not doing it. Actually, it kills me. It did mean solitude though. We climbed up into the low clouds, and had a very cool, misty, beautiful hike. It really is nice walking up there, so don't road walk crazy people!!! Made it to mile 500!!!!  And I can honestly say it's been about 500 miles as we have not skipped anything, having now walked a continuous path through all the fire closures.  Pats on our backs, yay!!!
We made it 16.5 miles with our hangovers, pitched a tent, and about 20 minutes after we climbed into our sleeping bag, it started raining. Whew, barely made it!

Day 38 - we got Goosed!

Anderson's, mile 478.2, PowerHouse fire closure alternate road walk to Lake Hughes Rock Inn. Big 6 mile day!!!

Got up, had some pancakes, cinnamon!!! At casa Del Luna, made it to the store for supplies, turns out the lady who work's there, her daughter is about to graduate from the US Merchant Marine Academy Kings Point as an engineer, and she did her cadet shipping with Grant. Small world, and small industry. Luckily, Grant claims he was nice to her :).  Walked to ranger station, washed our socks, started walking the detour at about 10am. We got a text from mama goose, they had already made it to rock inn and were waiting for us. We get there, and turns out there was another beer front! Yikes. Mama Goose got us two rooms upstairs in the old brothel, complete with ghosts, and everything. No arguments allowed. You know how it goes. We did get laundry done though! Anyways, day 5 of a beer front, and we have a new name for what happened "we got goosed!!" Well, actually, grant and I are always down for debauchery in old brothels. We are sailors, after all.

Day 37 - Casa de Luna

Day 37 - mike 465.9 to 478.2 plus .4 from store to Andersons 12.7 miles

Casa Del Luna/The Anderson's/Hippie Daycare

Woke up early as usual, camping with Mama Goose. We had breakfast with her and chatted awhile then grant and I were off at 0790. She still had to pack up her tent and gear, but she hikes way faster than me, so we knew we would see her before long.
Hiking was cool and nice, not too bad. We did finally see mama goose an hour before the road, but she charged on. Got to the Ranger Station and debated if we would stand around hitching the 1.6 miles to the store or start walking. I said if the first car doesn't stop, then we would hike. Well, of course the firts car stopped! We picked up Shuffle (as in iPod shuffle 'cause turns out he sings a lot :), made it to the convenience store, got an 18pack of pbr, and then walked to Hippie Day Care.
Hanging out at the Anderson's was awesome! Bunch of dirty hiker trash just hanging out. Resembled our times at Lake Mead! Grant even told his "how do you sell a deaf guy a chicken" joke. Hawaiian shirts for everybody, really really fun. They had a whole manzanita forest in their property for camping. Their famous taco salad was served with a smack on the butt with a stick if you broke the rules. I helped pick up, followed her in, and started doing dishes. Turns out, it doesn't happen very often that the drunk hiker trash offers to do dishes!
By the time I came back outside, all my friends were gone, it was dark, and I didn't have my headlamp. I stumbled (from the darkness) to the backyard calling for grant. He just kept whistling at me. Luckily Cavalier saved me, standing up with his headlamp guiding me to my tent. I finished off my IPA that Mrs. Anderson had given me for doing dishes, and went to sleep.
This place is an icon, but tends to bring freeloaders. We met people, who I thought I liked, who had hitched their then stayed for 5 days! And then weren't helping with anything!! And let's just say the Good Karma jar was pretty much empty. She hosts upwards of 50 people a day (about 35 when we were there). This is likely the last year after 15 years of hospitality casa Del Luna will open their doors, probably because there are just too many people on trail now. But I feel very lucky to have met them and had a beautiful time so thankyou!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 35 and 36 -agua dulce to camp with Mama Goose

Yes, well, where I last left off we were sitting in a cafe in agua dulce with plans to resupply and move on. Well, that didn't happen because the warriors rolled in, and of course we owed them a round, which turned into three pitchers of beer, beer to go, and them cramming us into their VFW host's truck to take us to their RVs and to the VFW bar..well, you know how these things go. So it was a 10.2 mile Nero, though I'm going to call it a half day. Anything over 6 miles but under 14 will officially be a half day :)

Day 36 - mile 454.5 to 465.9 agua dulce to camp with Mama Goose
Got up, had donuts and coffee that Tina, manager of the VFW bar and an air force desert storm vet herself, brought us/ made for us, then she drove us all back to town. Finished some beers from the night before, then we decided we needed a six pack of IPA before hiking, and then I decided we needed some 24 oz beers for the hike up. Other hikers joined us  for the fun, though others moved on from the debauchery. We decided to make the long climb to the top of the next hill before having out beers. Bags were solo heavy from the seven day resupply, plus water and beer. We had plans to all go to the Anderson's, so mama goose and us threw in the towel early and camped up by 4:45, our hangovers having nothing to do with it. 14 miles to go in the morning, then our last hoorah before the long walk across the Mojave and up to tehachapi continues. So awesome to meet up with our friends again after big bear. I've decided to go by Starboard after all, the name given by our friend Wild Man, as beesting/sting isn't working out well, but grant is going to go by "good time grant". Everybody likes that name :)

Days 28 thru 35 - cajon pass to agua dulce

Hello all, having trouble blogging right now. We are in agua dulce, home of the old hiker heaven, mile 454.4 at the cafe. Some day I will flesh out these days, but I'll give you the cliff notes for now:

Day 28 - mile 341.8 to 352.7 plus .9 miles= 11.8 miles...afternoon start leaving best western cajon pass. Meet a guy, first day on trail, very little backpacking experience, only carrying 1.5 liters water for 27 mile dry stretch, all uphill. Saved his life telling him about the seven liters I had, and he would likely die if he continues. Water cache where we make him get 5 more liters water. Fell way behind us after that. Haven't seen him since. Scary

Day 29 - 352.7 to 369.4 16.7 miles Wrightwood - up at 0355, walking by 0430. Almost get 10 by 10 (10 miles by 10am) instead get 9.8 miles by 10am. Robin Hood out of water, say well give him some of ours once we are 4 miles from the end. Doesn't come to that. Finish our 27+ waterless stretch with 1 liter left and at 2pm. Easy hitch down to Wrightwood, but expensive room. Nice night anyways.

Day 30 - Wrightwood, mt baden Powell mile 369.4 to 379.5 10.1 miles (pathetic)
Late hotel start. Climb (hike) Mt Baden Powell, founder of boy scouts. Dry camp. Cold

Day 31 - 1 month on trail!!! Mile 379.5 to 390.2  20.0 miles - includes alternate around endangered species detour, with 2.7 miles road walking. Lots of ups and downs, met a guy trying to get 36 miles in to beet the incoming storm. Smart guy turns out. We can't do those miles yet ( or ever :) cold, threatening clouds, hike on almost to 400, but stop at pullout in the trail, near hwy 2, but off highway.

Day 32  - mile 398.7 to 418.7 20 miles! Campsite near mike 400 to Millcreek fire station - rain and snow the whole time plus poodledog bush. Awful. Push on as already wet, so wanted to keep going and camp neat water source and away from snow. Snow gets deep. Running. Make it to fire station...trail angel Mary picking up some frat boys, so also gives us ride to hotel. Grateful to be warm and dry out our stuff.

Day 33 - mile 418.7 to 430.4 11.7 miles.. trail angel Mary picks us up. Grant pumps her gas. Takes us back to Millcreek fire station. Have two 24 oz pbrs for bbking. Good man, great music. Find my phone right where I left it. Hike in through the newly opened poodledog bush trail. Half cleared and beautiful, half a bit dodgy and tedious navigation around it. Cool weather so ok in full long sleeves and pants. Don't want to get burned!!! No rain. Yay :) camp messenger flats. Pathetic 11.7 mile day. Oh well. Oh yeah, put a scull back together and put on trail to scare people :)

Day 34 - Acton KOA day...mile 430.4 to 444.3 - warm but not hot great walking to koa. Laundry, shower, hot tub, funny guts Tom Sawyer and the dude ( prob too big a title for the kid, but oh well) grant gets to borrow the koa ladies bike and buys beer. Order pizza. Drink all night with Breaks. Very fun

Day 35  - Acton koa to agua dulce and on. I'm in agua dulce. The day is not done :)

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Day 27, silverwood lake to Cajon Pass Best Western - mile 328.7 to 341.8 plus .9 miles = 14 miles

Woke up earlyish, flush toilet!!! Woo hoo. Walking by about 6am with all morning chores complete. Champions!

Up and over, easy walking compared to last year with cold temps and blisters not too terrible. Met a trail runner woman who was super nice. We caught her again on her way back. says she runs up to 50 mile races. Crazy. She hiked with us a little while chatting, where I asked her about the gels. She gave me a different brand to try in mocha and vanilla flavors, agreeing powetbar sucks. Will definitely be better than the strawberry banana crap we choked down the day before. Very kind, an then off she went.

Made it to the subway gas station after a harrowing walk on the freeway overpass at about 1230, maybe earlier. 14 mikes by noon almost. Subway was temporarily closed due to a spill of some sort. Argh! Been dreaming of it since before big bear! Since the awful desert section after Ziggy and the bears, in fact. Oh well. We head over to the hotel, another death defying road crossing, bit first grabbed some beer. Room not ready as hotel had been sold out the night before while people waited out the storm, so we asked if we could drink beer in the lobby. No problem!!! This is hiker trash central and they let us do all kinds of things normal establishments frown upon :)

We handed out beers to any hiker who would have one until our room was ready, then we made the dash back to subway for food, because it was 2pm and I was a puddle of tears with hunger. I got a footlong veggie sandwich with triple cheese and atd it all within about 3 1/2 minutes. Then it was a shower, laundry, and hot tub time. After that, blogging, and grant passed out at about 6:45 pm.

We have a 30 mile waterless stretch ahead to Wrightwood. We are guaranteed not to get an early start, so I'm over it worrying.

Take it easy guys. Wrightwood here we come!

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Day 26 - Deep creek hot springs to silverwood lake mike 307.7 to 328.7 21 miles!!.

After having walked in threatening clouds and light sporatic sprinkles the day before, the rain came overnight. Alarm clock off at 0415 as usual (ha ha) rain coming down, toss and turn, finally decide to make coffee from inside the sleeping bag. Great idea, but very dangerous, considering the previous day. Still, genius! Breakfast and coffee I'm bed. Rain stops, and we pack up and hit the trail.

Another cold day wearing fleece. I'm loving it as last year was so different! Hike the part we hitchhiked around last year and it is nice, except one small segment along a highway near the dam. Luckily it was short, but when I thought it would be a long road walk, I started thinking of a song, something like "weeelllll, I quit my job and I sold my house so I could walk down this damned old highway to hell" it shortly veered off the highway up towards the lake where it was a nice walk. Tried some awful powerbar gel that made us gag but had caffeine. Bleh!  Made it to the (closed) cleghorn picnic area, found an open flush toilet an water spigot, layed out our tent, pulled up a picnic table and called it a day, our first 20 mile day!!! More than 20 miles!!!!  Yayayayayayyay!

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