Kennedy Meadows consists of a general store, Tom's Place (a lot of travel trailers, Internet, and camping space for thru hikers), and Ireland's (someone's home slash restaurant...don't ask me, I didn't check it out). It was the perfect place to take a zero day. Usually when you're in town, you run around in a daze, doing chores: eating, finding a place to stay, eating, resupplying, eating, laundry, finding internet etc. At Kennedy Meadows everything but the place to stay and the Internet were at the general store. The rest was at Tom's. it was a totally relaxing break.

I can't say enough good things about the place. We watched Roadhouse in the outdoor "theater,", ate lots of burgers, lots of pancakes, and so much ice cream. It was just fantastic.

In a word, this section can be described as windy. But truly, windy doesn't even begin to cover it. We were still traveling through the wind farms if that gives you an idea of the relentlessness of this wind.

The wind truly started back at about mile 505, just before Hikertown. The wind continued for over 100 miles, meaning I was unable to wear my sombrero for over 100 miles as it would blow right off my head.

Other than the wind what happened? I saw a yearling black bear (don't worry, I clocked my poles and shouted and it ran away), I passed the 600 mile mark and started, just barely started to get out of the desert. Oh and I listened to a lot of podcasts and music to drown out the wind.

At mile 673, WeeBee, Kiddo, Runs with Elk and I had a ladies night sleep over. It was really wonderful having some girl time out on the trail. It was a very rare experience to have four if us in the same spot. I can't wait to hike with Kiddo some more in Northern California!

Oh right, and my hiker hunger really hit this section. It truly was all I could do to not eat all of my food by day 3 (out of 7). I was just ravenous.

As the group who had camped together last night inevitably congregated at the water cache 8 miles from the next road crossing, we began to discuss which town we would each be heading to. There were two options, Mojave and Tehachapi.

Each town had pros and cons. Tehachapi had a movie theater. Mojave had Motel 6 with $35.99 rooms. Tehachapi had thrift stores. Mojave was very compact and walkable. Tehachapi had small town character. Mojave...well to be honest, Mojae was a hot, windy, truck stop town and I am delighted that I had mom send my package to tehachapi.

I hitched in with WeeBee an Alaskan who shares my loves of bluegrass, "affordable" beer, and siestas. After putting out thumbs out for about 20 minutes, we were about ready to call it quits and call a local trail angel, when not one, not two, but three cars stopped at once to pick us up!

We asked the driver to brig us to a tasty restaurant, food being the number one priority (not looking good, feeling good, or safety as I had previously thought). I had a jumbo taco salad with melt in your mouth chunks of pork (just thinking about it makes my mouth water even though I just ate a burrito the size and weight of a 2 month old baby).

After getting food out of he way, we needed to find a place to lay our heads. The chain hotels (best western, la quinta etc) all wanted $120+ for a room. Yelp advertised the Ranch Motel as very affordable but only two stars. We eventually found are way to the establishment, picking up Runs with Elk on the way, and while the room didn't come with shampoo, it did come with three beds and only put us back $45 all together. Not bad at all.

Besides that it was a pretty standard town stop. We ate at an incredible bakery, I bought te next book in the Wheel of Time series (book 6: Lord of Chaos, if you're interested), and hung out outside of albertsons for close to four hours before hitting the trail. All in all a great little town.

Oh! Possibly the most important thing that I found: a thrift store. I knew that the Sierras were coming, and with them the triple threats of cold weather, Mosquitos, and postholing. I have been happily hiking in a skirt but felt that pants may be necessary soon. I found a treasure trove of old lady slacks at the Tehachapi Guild Thrift Store. I ended up chosing a pair of gold silk slacks which ride at the belly button and came ironed and have fabulous pleats. I love them. That is all there is to it :)

Disclaimer: in the next 20 posts or so I'm going to use the dictation option on my iPhone to speed things up. I'm only going to edit it minimally. We will see how it turns out!

I walked across the Mohave Desert today. At 6 AM it was so cold that I had to wear my mittens. I made 17 miles by 1:15 and stopped for a long siesta under a bridge at a water cache. Walking on top of the Los Angeles aqueduct was easy but the wind was insane, it was nice because it kept it cool though.

After the siesta we walked another 7 miles. The wind increased. It was in same. The wind mills were very loud and I could hardly stand upright. My sombrero almost lost my head not have to type tonight.

This morning was beautiful, all trees and meadows. The afternoon was burnt, deserty, and more about meandering amongst the foothills crap.

I got into hikertown at about five. Bambi, WeeBee, Legwnd, Beorn, Kim, Runs with Elk, and a section hiking couple were all there. I ended up sharing "Townhall" with Runs With Elk. We had a very comfy king size bed. Oh and did I mention the shower?

I also ate an amazing dinner While at hiker town. There was salad corner macabre cauliflower rolls mash potatoes and crockpot barbecue because it was so good and so worth the $10.

I had heard that the hikertown was a creepy place but I had a good time and wasn't creeped out at all. Later I heard from hikers that the owner was a little strange but nothing had happened I would definitely recommend staying. Just a note: there is a required "donation" of $10. It was totally worth it.

I left the Saufleys at about 6:00am with no intention of walking the full 24 miles to the Anderson's. I waffled for the rest the day on whether I would stop at this notorious party house. After about 17 miles there is a water cash that is set up by the owners of Casa de Luna. In the trail registry it said "there are two kinds of hikers, those who stop at the Anderson's and those who wish they did". I didn't want to miss out on a huge part of the trail. I mean everybody talks about the Anderson's. But I wasn't in a party mood and that's with the house was known for.

I ended up running into some other hikers. They were planning on going to Casa de Luna and had a ride lined up. I could hardly refuse a taco salad and pancakes for breakfast in the morning. And that's how I ended up at the Anderson's. I had a good time. I didn't end up drinking anything and I got a great night sleep. The next morning I left at about 830 agter only a 12 hour stay which may be a record for staying at the Casa de Luna vortex. (It is renowned for sucking hikers in for days at a time).

I took the last 22 miles pretty fast. And it was totally worth it. Hiker heaven is so organized and the people are so nice. It was really my kind of place. I stayed up until midnight around the campfire eating s'mores and talking with Burrito Grande what a good evening.

The next day I just got a ride to REI and I ended up with four new Paris socks. We stopped at In and Out on the way home I have too many burgers, a milkshake and some crazy french fries.

It was a great place for a zero day and I'm so glad I took it!

Huge thanks to the Saufleys!!

Disclaimer: in the next 20 posts or so I'm going to use the dictation option on my iPhone to speed things up. I'm only going to edit it minimally. We will see how it turns out!

Today we entered serious put of the poodle dog bush territory. The poodle dog bush is a terrible terrible vegetable. It stings like my poison ivy I guess.

It stays dormant until after a burn or disturbance in the soil. This morning the map said the poodle dog bush was easily avoidable it wasn't easy. This afternoon it was labelled mostly avoidable. I didn't want to be mostly free from poodle dog rash. Ewwww.

To escape the poodle Donbush., We took the road detour and got a little lost. It was okay though, we found the roght road andI made camp with the Swedes for a great evening.

I made it out of camp in record time this morning and headed out to water, seven miles distant. I made it to the water mid-morning, and ran into Stumbling Beef, who I hadn't seen since Kickoff and was last hiking with Daddy Long Legs. Unfortunately, Daddy Long Legs (Mr. Hanley) is still 100+ miles ahead. It is unlikely that I will run into him this summer.

Stumbling Beef headed out and the Swedes, Birdman, Cowboy, Yard Sale, and Burrito Grande showed up talking about hiking the extra 1.8 road miles to get lunch at a biker bar. I initially declined the invitation (who wants to walk 1.8 miles each way for a burger?! Oh, right. Every PCT hiker EVER). About five minutes after the guys had left, I realized my mistake and beat feet to catch them. I finally caught up just before the road walk began. 

We made it to the bar, Newcombs, and while it was expensive, it sure was delicious. Oh boy. A cheeseburger with an Ortega pepper, spicy cheese, bacon, and an egg. Man oh man. I let the boys take the first hitch as I had taken the first hitch to Wrightwood. Unfortunately, no one showed up to drive me to the trail head. I started to walk up the road and grabbed a hitch with the second car that passed. The girl was nice, and it was all going swimmingly until we missed the trail head. I ended up walking about a mile back down the road to the trail head. Oh well. The burger was worth it.

Yesterday, I hiked a leisurely 5 miles out of town to the base of Mt. Baden-Powell. Today, I crawled out of my tent and hiked a mile and a half up the mountain (understand that it was a 4,000 foot increase in elevation over just under 4 miles...wowza!). At this point, I ran into a crying hiker, talking on speaker phone with who I assumed was her mother. It turns out that his 18 year old hiker had just gotten back on the trail after two weeks of mono recovery time. The day before, the doctor told her that she was mono-free, but that she had a swollen liver. She went ahead and hiked 20 miles on her first day back and ended up feeling pretty raunchy. The doctor wanted her off of the mountain. Her mom wanted someone to stay with her on the way down. I walked the mile and a half down the mountain with her with no incident (thank God! What would I have done if something had happened?! I have my Wilderness First Aid cert, but those classes didn't teach me what to do with an exploding liver! I guess I would just have hit my beacon?). I climbed back up the mountain and started my day, having hiked 3 extra miles. Oh well, I could hardly have said no, right?

I made it to the top of Mt Baden-Powell (9399 ft!) and boy was it beautiful. It was a little hazy though, so I couldn't quite see to the ocean. A few miles later, I met up with Travis, Thread, and Mermaid for lunch. We leapfrogged each other for the rest of the day. 

There was a trail closure to protect the habitat of the Yellow-Legged Mountain Frog. The official detour added 16 miles to the length of the trail (this detour was 20 miles total), while last year's detour only added about a mile to the trail (4.7 miles total) but it included a 2.7 mile road walk. We elected to take the shorter detour as we didn't have enough food to add an extra day to the section. After walking about a mile on the road with Travis, Mermaid and Thread showed up in the back of a pickup truck, we all jumped in and rode to the end of the road walk. Thanks truck man!!

***Note: Some hikers may look down on other hikers who accept rides during road walks. I feel strongly that I am here to take a wilderness hike, not to walk on roads. Thus, a hitch during a road walk is acceptable. In any case, hike your own hike (HYOH).

Travis, Thread, Mermaid, the Swedes and I shared a campsite at the Forest Service camp. Thread had seen a bear cub earlier in the day and we thought it best to make use of the bear locker at the camp. It was fun making dinner all together, and a first for me! After dinner, we shared a dessert of instant chocolate fudge pudding and Nido. Yummm.

Other highlights? I picked up a sombrero at Little Jimmy Campground and traded out my sun hat. Score!