Elevation today: +3728/-2785
Figure 8:
As has happened before, we had intentions of getting up early to a 5:30 alarm and knocking out some miles in the very early and cool morning…but we hit snooze and slept in :).
Good morning from the 4SR
As we were packing up, Daddie Gizmo said that if we had more food he would have loved to stay and enjoy the camp spot for another lazy day. Similar to the zero we took in Jackson Flat with the fire going all day too. Truth was, we layed all our food out yesterday and realized we have just enough food to make it to Lake Isabella with very little snacking. Hikers need to snack!! Unfortunately, we didn’t bring enough food to comfortably eat all day long as we burn through massive calories. Either way, we set off on what turned out to be an excellent day with lots of microflowers that we love. Gorgeous scenery. We got out of camp at 8:52 and knew we had 5 miles to go to Landers Creek to refill water. We ran into Canary while crossing a stream and while I was distracted talking both my feet slipped down the mud into the water. Oops – wet feet to start the day. Luckily, my shoes are goretex and dry fast. Shortly after that we took a wrong turn when the trail split. We realized we were off trail and were trying to cut across the desert when I saw Daddie Gizmo do a crazy side step jump that I had never seen. I could tell he was panicked and he quickly relayed that there was a huge rattlesnake there and to go around wide. 
This was our first rattlesnake encounter (except the one in the cage at Vazquez Rocks) and it was HUGE!!!!!!! We made it safely around and to the creek where Rubberball, Mellow, Hunter, Tatters, Rex and Akunah were all sitting and having some food in the shade. You will always find hikers in the shade of the desert. As Tatters said later that day, “it’s a rare resource out here.” There is about ten hikers – those guys I mentioned and couple others – who are all camping together every night, usually at a water source. We enjoy seeing them during the day but like to camp by ourselves. Out of the creek we continued through the pine trees and big boulders.
This scenery is hard to beat
Microflower!
It was a beautiful morning and easy miles in the shade. But those first 7 shaded miles soon opened up to the desert sun. As we were walking we ran into a new face, Guate. I chatted with him while we hiked for a while. He said he hasn’t seen anyone in 3 days, is from Guatemala and is a mountaineering guide. He takes people on big mountaineering trips in Pakistan and Guatemala. He is MUCH FASTER than us, doing 26-28 miles a day, so we won’t be seeing much of him. In the mid-afternoon, after hiking in the direct sun, we were so glad to arrive at a water cache near Kelso Road where it crossed the trail. Last years hikers put 50+ gallons of water there which was much needed because that stretch was really dry. A bunch of us relaxed a bit with lunch (we finished the last of our cheese and bread with some salami) and refilling before heading out. The large group was planning on going another 5 miles, but we wanted to wait out the sun and hike late in the day around sunset to get a few more miles in. As we left the cache we saw trail magic! Someone had set a cooler in the shade with sodas, beer and oranges! We split a Busch beer, grabbed an orange for later and signed the trail register. We grabbed a bit more shade to wait out the day and then hiked our little hearts out till about 8:30. 
The sunset was beautiful, the moon was nearly full and we were hungry! We had officially done our first 20 mile + day. We hadn’t necessarily planned on it, but it happened and felt good. 21 1/2 miles!!! We set up camp under the moon and a Joshua Tree and quickly made a very bad dinner. We bought stuffing to try to make with the summer sausage but it was more like wet bread crumbs. It was probably our second worst meal. The orange though was FANTASTIC!
Beautiful moon that this photo is doing no justice to
It was a 3000 ft total elevation gain today which seemed to come 1/2 at the beginning and 1/2 at the end. Very good luck today that we hiked in between 2 bubbles of other hiker groups and had the trail all to ourselves again. The middle of the hike was a very pretty and diverse since it went in and out of pine trees, rock canyon wall edges and grass meadows. Lots of flowers still blooming, too. We proudly crossed the 600 mile marker along the way to our camp site.
Lacy was really looking for some place out of the way of and with a view. After our water fill, she scouted out a little hilltop, a hundred ft off and up from trail that was perfect. Just enough room for one tent and the sunset.
It was cool n still gray when we finally emerged from our cocoon today. It was also almost 9am. Sleeping in when we know the weather today would be cooler from the rain last night was the plan from the time we went to sleep last night. We had a big climb out of the high canyon we were in to another higher and then another higher canyon before finally dropping down to out target water source 12.5 miles into the day.
We met a German girl going southbound and stopped to chat with her. She was on her gap year, traveling around the world. For 1 of her 4 weeks in the USA she chose the Walker Pass to Tehachapi section of the PCT to hike which is the most remote and longest water carry 1 week stretch she could have chosen. It’s a beautifully brutal 94 miles. Golden Oak Spring was a welcome sight after slowly using all of our water over the previous 25 miles.
We took an 30 minute nap, loaded up again and aimed for a camp site 5 miles away to finish the day. Freeze dried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes followed by 2 Cupcakes for desert. Snug in our fluffy bags under a big bright moon. Tomorrow is going to be hotter even at this altitude so the alarm is set early.
Knowing that it would be cooler the next 2 days we bought meat, cheese and a loaf of ciabatta which is going to be a very nice treat. Our hike was nice since it was a cloudy day. We took a break about 9 miles in under some Joshua Trees.
Someone even left some gin – ha!
We didn’t drink it because we already rationing water in this part of the desert and don’t need to dehydrate. We each have less than 2 liters on us and have 12.4 miles to the next water tomorrow. This was a 25 mi stretch without water. As soon as we got the fly on the tent we felt drizzles. We finished getting things in the tent quickly and were warm and dry! We enjoyed our delicious sandwiches, read our books and were asleep by 9:30. It was a really nice day 😊
Into Tehachapi
It was fully stocked so we drank a liter, took a liter to add to the 2 we were already carrying and set off down the hill. For me, I have daydreams of Dali’s Don Quixote paintings when we head into windmills.
We saw our first Horny Lizard today too. So prehistoric looking. When we came to the road, we were met by 2 Trail Angels. Stogie had Gatorade for us and Surveyor Dave was ready to take us into town. He dropped us off at a BBQ place for a big fat lunch and then offered us a shower and quiet place to camp in his backyard. After coming back into the fray of many more hikers than we had experienced before, we decided to take him up on it. He and his wife Dale were so very welcoming, genuine and helpful to us the entire time we have been here. They are about to drop us back on the trail after a good nights sleep. So far, in 39 trail days, we have hiked up 103,000 and down 100,000 feet of elevation in 558 miles. In the coming days, we climb up and down 27,000 feet just getting to the Sierra Mountains. Time to tie the shoelaces tight.
I felt like I was dragging my caracass the last 2 miles. I was crawling and it was still relatively early in the morning! 😮 The water source was a small creek running between 2 mountains. 
There were already 8 people crashed in the shade when we arrived. The main thing that I have noticed with the larger hiking groups is that there seems to be less sense of intimacy among the group. When we were in much smaller groups before we left on break, 2 hikers would never pass each other and not stop to talk and say hi. In the lager groups people seem more to themselves and sometimes and less willing to converse. And of course, as in normal life outside the trail, the more people you have together, the more chance there is that personalities will clash…
Since we were on the edge of a mountain and not walking on wide flat going like last night, we used our headlamps and not just the moonlight to light the path. At 8:30 we were on top of a mountain and overlooking the lights of the small town of Folsom (where the prison is) next to the blinking red on the windmills. The stars were out, the moon was bright and there a a flat spot wide enough for our tent. We thought that we might hike further, but this was a beautiful spot and we reminded each other that we don’t need to rush. We can stop, eat our dinner of beef jerky and crackers under the stars and then get a full nights sleep. And that’s just what we did 😊
Modern Gypsy Tales 