Day 30, Saturday, March 23. TM 558.3—(13.2 miles)

Last night was the calmest night, for wind, that we have experienced all trip. When I say “wind” I mean the atmospheric variety. I had some strong winds, myself. I can’t normally get Bunny to play Dutch Oven with me so I had to change the rules and go for a larger oven. With no wind in the air, the tent became the venue I needed. Bunny tried to shame me by saying she was gagging. By anyone’s standards, that’s a win.

We found the perfect combination of coffee, oatmeal, and athletic greens that makes the purchase of Exlax a thing of the past. The effect was immediate with residual benefits throughout the day. Even Michael Jordan had rushed shots where Rodman had to lend a hand to get it in the bucket. Trust me, Rodman would have been hands-off today. If you can’t figure out what I’m saying, just do everyone a favor and drink. 

We are in windmill nirvana. We thought we left the wind farm behind us for good today when we crossed a 6000’ Ridge only to come upon an even bigger wind farm. The one we are sleeping in tonight dwarfs the last one. There are well over a thousand wind turbines making this one of the largest wind farms in the world. Kudos to the person or persons responsible for site selection because the wind beat the crap out of us all day. 

1600’ up this morning, 2000’ down this afternoon. As usual, Bunny is lame for the first few miles and even more so when those are uphill miles. We had lingered long enough for Ivy and Wolf to get high enough to not be able to see the valley floor as we defiled it with our first round of evacuations. We hope that the dirt bikes that came screaming into camp just as we left did not have telephoto lenses. 

Of the 13 mile hike today, I’ll bet we didn’t have a total of 2 miles where we couldn’t see wind turbines. In addition to the turbines are hundreds of acres of solar arrays. We have it from a fairly reliable source that this is the beginning infrastructure for a planned community of over 90,000 homes in the valley around Hiker Town. There are plans in place to reroute the PCT to keep it in the mountains all the way around the valley instead of dropping down and following the LA aqueduct. This will surely add another 20-30 miles to the trail. 

The morning lent us great views of the San Gabriel Mountains and its crown jewel, Mt Baden Powell. This is the northern end of the section we jumped. Baden Powell is still very much covered in snow. Our current plan is to hike all the way to Walker Pass, about another 86 miles past Tehachapi. We’ll then make the decision whether to head back to Paradise Cafe and remain nobos if San Jacinto is traversable, or head to Acton (where we began this section) and hike south if Baden Powell is traversable. We really have no idea which or either way we’ll be able to proceed. I’m sure we’re the only people that are worried about snow, ice, and cold winds in this desert section. 

We couldn’t see Ivy’s or Wolf’s tents until we were almost right on top of them. Once again, they had been in camp almost an hour. There is a list of trail angels on the picnic table and Wolf has already secured us a ride to town tomorrow afternoon. We are going to be met on the highway at 2p and whisked away to two nights of comfort out of the cold. 

While we were talking to Wolf and Ivy (in their tents) it started misting on us. We quickly set up our tent between a couple horse tie offs; the poop provides added cushioning under the tent. I threw Bunny and our packs in the tent, grabbed a gallon of water from the cache the Tehachapi Angel Association has left here, and jumped in the tent. It wasn’t even 4, but we were in for the night. Calgon, take me away. 

EFG

Another episode of our trail vlog: Episide #4, enjoy!