Day 41, Walking a total of 41 miles in 25 hours to Tehachapi!!!

start 517.6 end 558.6 total 41.0 miles in 25 hours.  Elevation start 3030 feet, end 4132 feet.  Total ascent, 5,460 feet, total descent, 4,023 feet.  Average grade, 232 feet per mile.  Sunny, high 82, low 54, winds 20-25 MPH. 

Day 41 out of Hikertown would include a very close call, a change of plans, and a discovery that would ultimately land me back at my home in Kansas!!! One thing the PCT has taught me is to take sudden unexpected changes in stride!

I left Hikertown with the group I’ve been hiking with. Little did I know when I started this day that this would be my last hike with this great group.

We decided to leave at 4:00 in the afternoon, hiking across the LA Aquaduct and 24 miles mostly at night instead of in the sun because there is absolutely no shade during most of this stretch. We left excited to hike under the stars!

This 24 mile stretch would be physically easy, but extremely tough on our feet, knees, and legs. The terrain on the PCT is constantly changing from up to down and the trail itself is constantly changing from flat to sloped to the left, right, or concave, and from dirt to sand to very rocky. This is constantly changing the angle that our legs and feet have to work, helping to prevent repetition motion issues. The aqueduct is the exact same terrain for 24 straight miles. This hurt my/our legs and feet terribly! A few of us ended up with terrible blisters from this. I’m fortunate that I didn’t get blisters from this, but it did make my quadriceps painfully sore.

It was exciting to watch the sun go down during our lunch (actually dinner) break. We decided to break at the 6, 12, and 18 mile mark of this hike. It was at mile 12 that we had our dinner break.

The stars came out as darkness descended. Groups before us had problems with large numbers of flies bothering them, but we were very lucky because it was windy. The winds kept the flies from being a problem. In fact, I don’t remember seeing any flies, even when heating up dinner. The winds would cause an entirely different issue, kicking up much dust. It looked like snow in my headlamp light beam.

We were walking on a dirt road when my life flashed before my eyes. I almost stepped on a green Mojave Rattlesnake!!! They’re even more poisonous than a regular rattlesnake!

I was within a half step of stepping right on it when I noticed it illuminated by my light. I jumped back, yelling in alarm. This startled “Falls” , causing him to jump! We walked much slower after watching the snake slither off, continuing up the dirt road until our next scary surprise. There was a random doll head in the side of the hill!

This was sure creepy! The main topic of conversation after the encounter with the doll head was anything creepy and scary. Zach “just awesome” told a story of his mother doing yard work around their house built in 1880 in New York. She found a grave stone in their yard, very near their house, while digging. That grave stone was for a child! We talked about our favorite scary movies, whether or not we believed in ghosts, or any other topic of conversation over anything creepy or scary!

We made it to our campsite 24 miles away around 2:30 late at night.

I put my tent up and quickly fell asleep. I was awoke two and a half hours later by people packing and leaving camp! It was at this time that our group decided to hike 17 miles to the highway into Tehachapi! This would be 41 miles in slightly over 24 hours! This promised motels and 2 off days in a row!

My body felt weary and sore after last nights long hike, but I knew I could do it! The resiliency of the human body and mind is amazing! Only when you push yourself to levels beyond what you think are possible do you really find out what you’re physically and mentally capable of!!

There would be some intense climbing on this day for my already weary body. These climbs would lead to some pretty scenery.

There was trail magic at the top. Daniel set up umbrellas for shade, had drinking water, and snacks.

Daniel offered me an apple strudel and an apple. Talk about amazing after that hard climb!

I took a break for lunch in a beautiful pine forest. The pine cones were huge!

I was eating lunch when I heard a buzzing sound. A large swarm of bees flew over! They didn’t pay any attention to me and were soon gone.

We descended down and walked to the highway where we hitch hiked into Tehachapi, completing another 17 miles! It was in Tehachapi that I discovered both my debit and credit cards no longworked! Some cyber thieves managed to get my account information and passwords! The cards were now inactive due to security. I had no access to anything!!! My group is taking a few days off trail. I decided to come home so that I could attend my step-daughter’s graduation and take care of this issue of identity theft!! I’m very fortunate that I carried enough cash with me to get me home in case something like this happened! Our local Topeka, Kansas bank was very quick to lock down my account and debit card. I give them 2 thumbs up for that! They shut my account down when somebody tried to send a person to person wire transfer of money out of my account. They managed to make a purchase, so I have to dispute this with my bank, The bank officially closed my old card and made a new card for me. I now have to change any account set up for auto payments. My credit card also got locked down.

I’m now off trail and home for a week, headed back out to Tehachapi in a week. I look forward to hiking the last 150 miles of desert by myself. I love the group I’ve hiked with, but I want the solitude and challenge of hiking by myself and I willget it in this last 150 miles. I will be back in the next week to hike Tehachapi to Kennedy Meadows, then onto “plan B”!!