Day 37 – 46 | Mile 558.5 – 703.4 | Goodbye, Desert

Day 37 – 38 | Double Zero | Tehachapi

We took a double zero in Tehachapi meaning we spent three nights and two days in town. The first and third night we spent at Barb’s Hiker Hut and the second night was spent at a hotel with a pool and hot tub. Barb’s was a by-donation stay with a communal kitchen, bathroom, bucket laundry, cots, and a small loft area. Most folks chose to stay in their tents around the property and as did I. Her place was a great stay with a really nice hiker community vibe. We saw a bunch of hikers in town that we had not seen in days or weeks. It was really nice to catch up.

Tehachapi was extremely hiker-friendly and we were able to get rides easily all around town. Coming out of Walmart with our resupply, someone pulled over and asked if we needed a ride. This happened to us numerous times. After shipping supply boxes ahead on trail, the public transit bus stopped and the driver said she had extra time and asked if we wanted a ride. She took us to a burger joint off her route, then picked us up after we ate and brought us back Barb’s. What a town!

I sent home my stove and fully committed to cold soaking my meals. I had been trialing cold soaking for a couple weeks at this point and was ready to ditch the stove for the weight savings.

Day 39 | Mile 558.5 – 582.7

A lot of the group at Barb’s skipped ahead 8 miles on trail from where we got off trail to enter Tehachapi. We went back to where we left trail and did the 8 miles. It was a fairly easy stretch but it was dry (no water sources).

At the end of the 8 miles, there was a water cache. The next water was 16 miles ahead so we filled up here before pressing on. These water caches became our main sources for a lot of the next section through to Kennedy Meadows. The water in these caches was almost always hot because the bottles would be sitting in the sun for hours.

The heat wave was still looming and we were heading into the afternoon. We did about a third of the climb before having to break and wait for the hottest part of the day to pass. The first spot we stopped at was underneath a couple of Joshua trees that did not provide too much shade. Second location provided much more shade and we stayed there for a couple of hours.

Rest of the day was tough hiking and we didn’t make camp until 10pm. The trail was running along a hillside with minimal opportunity to have a flat site. The area was full with four other hikers and I had to pitch on a very slanted patch of ground. It was very windy and wasn’t a great sleep.

Day 40 | Mile 582.7 – 603.3

This was a fully dry day as there wasn’t any water between our start and finish tent sites. It was a long, hot day with the highlight being reaching 600 miles.

Supposedly, there was a private cabin stocked with honeybuns for the taking, or so the intel suggested. We were holding on to this long shot idea of copious amounts of honeybuns stashed in this shack all day. When we reached the cabin, it looked like a preppers dream hideaway. The windows were covered with sheet metal, the door was half covered with sheet metal with only a massive deadbolt exposed, fuel tanks in the yard, large sea container with numerous padlocks. All this, and no honeybuns. We were crushed.

It was another 2 miles to camp and water after the honeybun cabin and our motivation was shot. However, we pushed on and made it to Robin Bird Spring where each of us had a flat site and there was flowing (dripping) water. What a dream.

Day 41 | Mile 603.3 – 625.5

We had a really nice stretch of trail on this morning through a pine forest on top of a ridge line. There was a small stream running beside the trail for about 4 miles. It was such a welcome change to have easily accessible water, even if it was only for a short while.

The forest ended with a large burn zone for a few miles and then transitioned into proper Mojave desert again. There was a water cache breaking up a dry 25 mile water carry. Right as we arrived at the cache, a couple pulled up to host trail magic. Perfect timing. There was only a handful of hikers that came through so we had the lions share of the food and drink. They had homemade fried chicken and baked goods, soda, water, fruit. It was incredible after coming through a really hot and dry stretch of desert with no shade.

After the trails angels left, we hung around the cache waiting for the heat to dissipate a bit. Each of us crammed underneath small sage bushes for whatever bit of shade we could find. I got bit by a fire ant while trying to rest and it burned for next 4 days on my thigh, it was brutal.

Leaving the cache, we had to go further into the desert and had to dry camp. We saw some more large snakes and kangaroo mice. It was absurdly windy and we struggled to walk in a straight line. We managed to find some semi-shelteted tent sites behind a cluster of Joshua trees for the night. The wind howled all night. It was quite the day.

Day 42 | Mile 625.5 – 652.5 | Walker Pass

Another long dry day to Walker Pass. We had a 15 mile water carry. Thankfully, we gained back the occasional tree covering the trail for some shade through the afternoon. Made it to a car camping area to sleep around 9pm.

Day 43 | Mile 652.5 – 657.2 | Ridgecrest

From Walker Pass, we decided to head into Ridgecrest to top up our food for the final couple of days to Kennedy Meadows South. We struggled to get a hitch into town for about an hour. Eventually, we were picked up by a really friendly guy, Bruce, from the area who was back visiting. He told us all about growing up in China Lake, the Navy R&D base adjacent to Ridgecrest. It was a great ride with him into town and we learned a lot. It worked out the he was also heading back through Walker Pass in the afternoon so we were able to coordinate a ride back to trail as well with him.

In town, we tapped into two American institutions; Denny’s and Walmart. We tried to get in as many calories as we could at both locations.

Back on trail, we only did about 5 uphill miles before deciding to stop near the top of the climb. We had a great site, mostly protected from the wind, with a lovely view.

Day 44 | Mile 657.2 – 682.3

There were some really cool sections of trail through the Owens Peak Wilderness area. In the morning, we were often on the side of a mountain looking down into the Mojave. Rounding the ridges to head west, we were met with massive gusts of wind we had to fully lean in to. I loved how strong the wind was and I couldn’t help but smile at how absurdly powerful it was while trying to walk into it. We slept at Chimney Creek Campground where bears were reportedly a problem being fairly habituated. Out of caution, we stored our food in the pit toilet buildings. These toilets were not well maintained… but it was better than dealing with bears.

In the time since our stay here, we’ve heard numerous stories of bear encounters. Some include having four bears rummaging through backpacks, food bags being taken off picnic tables by bears while people are sitting there eating, and waking up to a bear 12 inches from someone’s face sniffing them. So food in the outhouse? We didn’t have any bear issues and I feel vindicated.

At the campground, a couple of other hikers were there. A hiker’s wife was visiting him on trail with their camper van. They had a full suite of food and gave of cold drinks and made us fresh sandwiches. It was fantastic, great end to the day.

Day 45 | Mile 682.3 – 703.4 | Kennedy Meadows

We may not have had any bear issues overnight, but we had quite the encounter in the morning. We stopped to filter water at small stream and there was Sleepwalker and his parents taking a break. Sleepwalker is less than a year old and his breaks involve a lot of play time. The family were in full play mode with their things unpacked and spread out.

As we were finishing up 30 ft. away from them, Steph called down to us there was a bear near them. We immediately dropped what we were doing and ran up to put ourselves between them and the bear. She wasn’t kidding the bear was close, it had crept up to within 10 ft. of them and wasn’t readily backing away. We kept ourselves between them while they packed up trying to scare the bear away. It was not afraid of people and was clearly only interested in getting to their food. The bear had a large tracking collar and a few tags so we think it had been relocate dat least once already.

We continued to make noise and try to spook it to little effect. Eventually, I started tossing rocks and sticks near it. That also wasn’t working. One stick I threw ended up hitting the bear right in the forehead. He looked stunned for a few seconds…before refocusing on the food. I hit it again in the behind with another stick and that had more of an effect.

Keeping the bear at bay went on for about 5-10 minutes before they were packed up and we could start hiking again. The stick toss to the bear’s forehead earned me the trail name “Headshot” and the story has become somewhat of a legend on trail.

After the bear standoff, we had a large climb out of the valley and towards Kennedy Meadows. On the other side of the climb, the transition from desert to Sierra range was obvious. The vegetation changed, there were more streams and creeks, and the temps were lower. All within the span of a few miles.

We made it to Kennedy Meadows midafternoon and caught a perfectly timing shuttle to Grumpy Bear’s. I had the Triple Crown burger which was an insane amount of food and a few beers to round it off. Took a nice hot shower and pitched camp for the night.

We officially left the desert section and entered the Sierra section of the PCT. Surreal.

Day 46 | Zero

We ate a massive breakfast at Grumpy’s and attempted to do laundry. The machines weren’t the best but they were free. We unloaded a delivery of food to the kitchen at the promise of free beer but the beer never showed up after we finished…. Darn.

We moved on to the General Store where we had our resupply boxes from Tehachapi waiting for us. I had ordered a few pairs of new shoes to try as well but none of them fit. What’s another 100 miles in my shoes? They’ve lasted since Julian at Mile 77.

In total, I had six packages waiting for me there and the staff was relieved to see me arrive. I was told the record was ten packages for an individual person. I was getting close.

I received my bear can filled with goodies from home and winter gear including my ice axe, microspikes, hat and gloves. The day was spent reorganizing and repacking my bag with the addition of the bear can and winter gear making things tight. I could hardly close my bag. At the end of it, my bag now weighed 45 lbs. including six days of food.

That night we watched a movie with a projector outside and got ready to head into the Sierras the next day!