"With a Little Help From My Friends"

Day 29 - May 4

Mile: 530 to 553

up/down: 4800/2500 feet

Thankfully it wasn't all bad, but it was pretty bad today. More aqueduct, windmills, a huge fire remnant, whole mountainsides destroyed by erosion from illegal motorcycle routes. The good was another visit from our friend Stan and the wildflowers, especially as we moved up in elevation. 

Stan lives near where we were today so we agreed to meet in the morning. It was easy to hook up as we were walking on the aqueduct road right up till quitting time last night. Ever resourceful, Stan looked at our map track from yesterday and drove right to our campsite as we were packing up. He had some time to kill this morning so we came up with the idea of slack packing the remaining 5.5 miles of the aqueduct. While our packs road in Stan's truck we whipped out the miles in under an hour and a half. It was awesome walking with nothing but a hand bottle. When it was time to part , Stan sent us on our way with sandwiches and other goodies. Thank you again Stan for being such a good friend.

 

 

We headed into the windmills and climbed into the Tehachapi mountains. This area boasts some of the best and most regular wind anywhere and there are lots of these things. I will say one thing about them, they are huge. We walked past one that had a crew of workers on top - they looked like ants. 

 

 

There is a worker in the middle looking down at us

We continued up and reached Tylerhorse Canyon, a pretty little spot and our last water for the day. With 16 miles until next water it was load up for another dry camp. We are getting better at estimating our water needs based on terrain and temperature. We hauled 8 liters after a rest and first lunch break. 

 

The rest of the day was spent climbing the traversing an old burn. The erosion from motorcycle tracks is hideous - both on the PCT and crossing it. We were disgusted, but that's enough about that. 

 

 

The wildflowers were very good in areas and we got a new trip bird today - Prairie Falcon.

 

 

 

Tomorrow we get another assist from friends. Dan and Brenda will meet us at a road crossing about 5 miles from our camp tonight. They will take our packs while we blast out the last 8 miles to Highway 58. Then we will all travel home, hopefully after stopping along the way for food!  Thankfully they already know how terrible thru hikers smell and are prepared!  We will be off the trail for a few days this weekend with some family stuff. We will jump back on right where we left off around Monday. Thanks Dan and Brenda for coming to fetch us!