Woke this morning still feeling dehydrated. Most of the folks are packing up and leaving to get some miles in before the heat. I decided to lounge around today near the water and get my mojo back. I’m not leaving until there is no trace of yellow in my piss.

Washed my clothes in the stream and hung them out to dry. Setup my solar panel and charged all my bats. Grabbed my pad and spent the morning blogging while watching hikers trickling in. Went from a couple people to 30 by 11:00. All were laying around for the day in two clumps.

 

Hung out with Thirsty Detour for a big chunk of the day. He’s an actuary from Salt Lake. He is averaging 15’s, so I probably won’t see him much after this. I think the Camels he is smoking might have something to do with the mileage numbers 🙂

While we were chatting, the sick dude from a couple days ago showed up to chat. Apparently he had setup yesterday around the same time as me, but has been laying in his tent all day. His name is Payless. He told me that every time he thinks he’s feeling better he loads up, gets a few steps in, then barfs. He’s a young, slim, fit kid. Not much fat reserves.

Thirsty and I felt bad for him. Payless thought maybe some food with lots of fiber might help. Thirsty dug into his pack and found a nutrition bar. I just threw him my food bag and said to pick out anything he wanted. He ended up taking a couple granola bars and all my trail mix (bunch of nuts and stuff). Fine by me, that mix sucked anyway.

Plenty of hiker sympathy, but nobody wanted him to be too close to him. He must have already picked up on that, because his tent was setup alone far from the group. He wondered back to his isolation chamber and went to sleep. Later I wondered by his tent and saw a gigantic rattler slithering a few feet from it. Must have been 5 feet long. That got him a little excited. Poor guy can’t get a break.

By 3, I was feeling the urge to get on the trail.  I’m pissing clear, potable water.  I should bottle this stuff!

I’m sick of this heat. I’m sick of all this wind. I’m REALLY sick of the desert. I’ve been hiking the desert on and off for 6 weeks and enough is enough. Decided that I’m going to rock the trail tonight.

I wrapped up my right leg in a new compression bandage using some tips from a guy with a similar problem. Picked up my pack, said my goodbyes, and clocked in at precisely 4:00. I’m hiking second shift tonight and there is plenty of overtime available.

SECOND SHIFT
I left with 5.5 liters of water, so I’m back to a 40 pound carry. The temp was 80 and dropping. I’m feeling pretty good.

There was some small climbing up to about 6.9k. In the tree line so the trail was pleasant. There are some streams during the 6 to 8 mile stretch before the decent into desert misery.

It was nice to actually see more than a trickle of water. I’m water loading as I walked sucking down 2 liters in 6 miles. I refilled at one of the stream crossings.

 

Stopped for some dinner at 7 at a camp site. Most folks are setting up, I’m going to keep moving.

Trails continued to be nice for a few more miles.

It was cool walking into the dusk. As the sun was setting to the West, the moon was rising to the Southeast. Looked like a full Moon.

Crossed some burn then headed downhill. The few unburned trees began to disappear around 11. Had my headlamp on, but only needed to use it occasionally. Most of the time I was just hiking by moonlight. Had the headphones blasting music from my play list. Then it happened.

Werewolves of London starting playing.

Looked into the sky and saw a full Moon…..

And let out a long howl….

…..and Salty J was transformed.

The rest of the night was a blur. Hiking by moonlight until 4 am through crazy 25 mile/hr winds with nasty gusts to 40. Sand blowing everywhere. No shelter, even on the lee side of the hills. Passing hikers cowboy camped in sad little piles trying to get shelter from the wind. None of this bothered the Wolf.

Sleep came about 4am.   Woke up a few hours later at 7am laying on a ground sheet under a Joshua Tree with my sleeping bag covered in a sand. There were some instant coffee packets and snickers bars missing from my food bag.

No hikers were harmed during this episode, but a few may have had their tents peed on. I’m pretty sure the Wolf peed on my left shoe during a particularly bad gust of wind.

Did 25 miles that night (mile 627). I’m finally back in the groove!

By the time I got out of my tent, Mayo had left and the other 2 folks were packing up. I spent some extra time doing stretches and, after the last one left, found a nice vista for a morning constitution.  

We camped around mile 587 last night. Didn’t have much of an objective today, just wanted to make the next water and see what else I could do. Unfortunately it turned out to be a rough day.

Started at about 5k feet and the trail is generally a long exposed mild upward climb for a while. These loud windmills seem to never go away. There are not that many of them, it is just that the trail seems to keep coming back to the same area. Had to blast the headphones to get that grinding sound out of my head.

Before Hamp Williams Pass at around 594, the trail turned vicious. Steep, exposed climb up to 5.8, down to the Pass, then another slog up to 6.2k at 597.5. I stopped for a some brunch at 10:30 with a couple of folks (Pinata and Sour Straws). Temp on my thermometer was 92 and climbing. By the time I reached the second peak, I was covered in sweat and could not keep up on the water intake. Shin splint on the right leg was killing me from the brief down hills.

Time for a change in tactics. Around noon, I found a nice shady spot under a tree, threw down my pad and went to sleep.

It is hard to describe water anxiety when the temps are pushing 100 degrees. Middle of the day, Out of water, leg hurting, still carrying at least 35 pounds, and relief is 4 miles away. Only solution is to reach down and grab some grit.

If I had the water, I’d have stayed longer. By this point I was down to 1 liter and getting worried. Still another 4 or 5 miles to Robin Bird Spring. So, back on the trail.

The trail joins some crappy dirt road to a private residence. There are lots of “No Trespassing” and “No Water” signs next to the structures here. I expected to see some bearded guy with a shotgun standing guard. Didn’t see a single hiker and pulled the last water from my bladder 2 miles from the spring. No love in this stretch.

Reached Robin Bird around 3:30. I’m pissing dark yellow and I’m super dehydrated. Bunch of hikers laying around, some of whom are packing up to do some late hiking. Shade and water. Paradise.

I setup my tent and then spent the rest of the day drinking, eating, and sleeping. I pounded at least 4 liters before nightfall. Was dozing in my tent when a couple and another dude setup next to me. The couple wanted to start a fire. The dude was like “I think that is a really bad idea…the wind is going to blow embers into our tents”. It went back and forth for a while but I figured he was going to win the argument, so I went back to sleep. There was no fire thankfully.

I did a pathetic ~14 miles today. Need a better plan tomorrow.

 

At first light I wake up to the dull throb of shin pain.    Sitting still is uncomfortable.  When I start walking on it there is going to be a pain-party.  

My plan was to get to 566 and hitch to Tehachapi.   That’s what most of us wanted to do.   Instead I’m going to aim for 558 and catch the early alternate.   I don’t think I’m going to make it much further.  

The trail follows the several ridge lines in a gradual and, for me, painful downhill grade.    Eventually I run into a monster wind farm that seems to go on forever.  

I reach Willow Springs road, happy to just be able to still walk.   I run into a German couple who are trying to catch a ride too.   We try calling some folks listed on the trail angel paper posted at the exit do not have much luck.   

We give up on this angle and head to the road.   Johan lays out the strategy.   His GF Anna on the road with her thumb out while we, the male portion of the group, sit on a rock.   When a car pulls over we join her and the driver gets a 3 for 1 deal.    Sounds good to me.   Within 5 minutes, some unlucky motorist is driving our smelly asses to town.   Thanks Anna.   

When I load my pack in the car I realize that I forgot to turn on my footpath tracing today.   I’m really off my game.   Hopefully Alice is not freaking out.    I flip it on and jump in for the ride to town.    All I want to do is find a cafe and sit there all day.

Once in town I ring Alice and arrange a pick-up.   I need to get off the trail for a while and get this leg working properly again.    She arrives around 2ish and we head back.   Funny enough, the route takes us through Green valley and find a couple of PCTer’s trying to hitch to Casa De Luna.   We pull over and give them a lift.   

After X-Rays and various examinations it seems to be some muscle tear.   Folks are telling me I could be out of action for several weeks.    I’m shooting for 1 week.   If I can get to Kennedy Meadows, I can take another 2 week break while waiting for the snow to melt a little.    

As I’m writing this on Sunday, June 4th, the leg is definitely feeling better.   It is still swollen but that is going down little by little.  I’ve spent 5 days off the trail with my iced leg propped up watching TV.   I’m going crazy. 

So here’s the plan: I’m going to wrap my leg up tomorrow and hit the trail.   I’ll try to hold it together for the last 140 miles to Kennedy Meadows, then work out a ride to Mammoth.   I’ll meet my cousin up there and hang out there for a week or two of healing while wait out the snow melt.   Perhaps we can section some bits while we are there.    Sometime around July 1, I’ll give Kennedy another try.