Besides writing the PCT-entries under category-tag “Viae meae”, I’m also working or thinking on new Mind Stories entries along the way. Lyrics, poems, fictional stories, or letters, whichever comes to mind. When posting those in the future I will try to provide some context with them, so they will not be confused with my travel entries, as they may have nothing to do with them, but just might be published within the same time-span of me being away.
That being said, back to the Pacific Crest Trail.
When sleeping in a bed, after many nights on my air-matrass, I tend to sleep very deeply, which is great. Woke up refreshed and headed out to the included breakfast at the motel-lobby. I think I ate pretty much everything the buffet had to offer; eggs, muffins, yogurt, cereal, pancakes. Because when in Rome… Great way to start the day. Jimmy & Natalie read the papers, you’d almost forget we’ve been barging through the great outdoors for the past few weeks.
After breakfast it was time to start with another long list of town-chores. We wanted to hike out later tonight, so all had to be squeezed into today. First things first though; I had to say goodbye to my first pair of Brooks. These champs carried me all the way from Campo to Tehachapi, some 550 miles, and they’ve been kind on my feet. So boys, thanks for the great miles, so long!
I started clearing out more stuff from my pack that I didn’t need, and around 0900 I made phone-calls with mum and my brother. Great to talk to them again, it was real nice catching up. Because Linda (the trail-angel who drove me from the store to the post-office and back again) had offered to make us lunch today, I contacted her and we set a time for her to pick us up. Then I went to the K-mart where I picked up some small items for the next stretch and all of us gathered at the parking lot around 1230. Linda picked us up and took her to her lovely home on the outskirts of the valley, in the hills of Tehachapi. We dropped our packs at the front yard and got cozy with her many dogs. Then she served us lunch; it was amazing!
We feasted on big plates of pasta and salad and told stories of our adventures on trail. Linda’s been quite the adventurer herself, having a rich climbing and hiking history; she’s traveled all continents (including Antarctica). Pretty cool. After a delicious meal, she dropped us all of at different places where we’d finish up the rest of our chores before hiking out to the trail again. Linda has been the most amazing host and a wonderful trail-angel, and all of us where astounded with all she’s done for us. We were very grateful.
Since we all had different purposes in town, we met up at a local bakery, but not before Simon and I easily scored another ride from a lovely lady at the supermarket. People in Tehachapi are so kind to thru-hikers, it is wonderful. At the coffee-shop, we arranged another ride back to the trail-head.
All of us had heavy packs from the fresh resupply, and I was not particularly excited to start cranking miles yet, but it would only be a half a day (or evening) of hiking. We will be entering the final desert-stretch. The weather-forecast is that it’s going to be hot. Very hot. Early morning and night-hiking should once again be pretty essential. After these last 140 miles of desert we will reach Kennedy Meadows. The starting point of the Sierra’s. The promised land. Really looking forward to it. But first we have to tackle this last stretch.
We climbed through the hills of the wind-farm, which made for interesting views. After 4.5 miles we stopped at a ridge to watch the sunset. It felt good to be out again. I seem to settle back into trail-life faster than before. Pretty soon after my feet hit the trail I felt like I was back into hiking-routine.
Time to dig up the headlamps and get some night-miles in. I’d swapped out my batteries (yep, I learned from my previous mistake) and was happy to be able to see in the dark now (and thus determine my own pace). We made it into camp pretty late, around 2300. Now I’m tired and heading to bed, tomorrow should be an early start to beat the heat again.
Sleeping on the steps
waiting for the day to begin
Cause I know where you’re at
But I swear one day you’re coming back my friend
I hope we meet in the end
And I’ve been thinkin’ about
What I’m gonna do with today
Cause you took the long way home
and I can’t foresee me going any place
Move along is all you heard
I’m sure you’re fine right there
But if you’re bad with words
We have a space to share
a space to share….
Space to Share – Scapegoat Wax
