The morning came swiftly with a 4:30 am alarm that rang in the dark. We packed up as quietly as we could and just had cold bars for breakfast. We were hiking in the Mojave today, and it was supposed to reach 90 degrees. Basically, every hiker was trying to get up early to try to beat the heat. The bikers from last night actually brought some kids with them, so they went to bed and were quiet by 9:00 or 9:30, so we had pretty decent sleep.
We were packed and ready fairly quickly and hit the trail by 5:15. When we started, I followed Singsong down a heavily forested path, and we needed to use our headlamps to see. There’s still a lot of grass right along the trail whenever we aren’t in an old burn scar, which makes for some cool hiking. We could see the sun starting to light up the horizon off in the distance, but it wasn’t up yet and it was blessedly cool still. We hiked along the side of a valley for a while and enjoyed many small wildflowers that grew right along the trail. There has been a ton of this small white flower that looks similar to baby’s breath (maybe it is?) growing right along the trail. We were pretty excited this morning because we knew we were going to hit 500 miles today! It feels like a huge accomplishment and we’re super excited for the next 500 miles.
We walked with the I’m Gonna Be (500 miles) song stuck in our heads, and finally, we turned a corner and came across some stones that formed the 500-mile marker in the dirt. The actual signpost was burned down in a fire a few years ago. We took a moment to relish our success, and it was a little daunting to consider what we have left. But that’s okay, it’s the journey we’re interested in, not the destination.
We continued onward and had our one larger climb for the day. It was 2 miles long and fairly gradual. The breeze was gently blowing and it felt much warmer than the last few days. We worked our way up higher and higher, and when we got to the top, we had excellent views of the desert far down below. We walked for a while longer up and down through little hills and valleys before coming to a dirt road where we would take our first break of the day after 6.5 miles of hiking. Our first order of business was to head down the road a little way to find another water guzzler like the one at the end of yesterday. We found it and the water was cool, but this one definitely had less water and more dirt. Yay for filters, I guess. This would be our last water until Hikertown, the hostel where we are headed today, unless we come across a cache. We stopped to have a snack as well and chatted with a hiker from Weed, CA, which is pretty close to Redding. She took off and we finished our snack before heading out as well.
The next section was full of oak groves, which was a welcome change from all the burned sections we have been going through lately. We wound through them back and forth, up and down for a long time. Eventually, the trail began to slope downward, and we followed it, gently switchbacking down the mountains. It was very shady the whole time, and even though it was warm, it didn’t feel too bad given the lack of direct sun exposure. As we went lower and lower, we could see a road below and, on the other side, some very bare, dry-looking hills that separated us from the actual desert floor.
When we got all the way down, we paralleled the road for a while and caught up with Spigot and Classic, the couple from Belgium, and had lunch with them in a wonderfully shady spot. We had a feeling the last 6 miles would be very hot and exposed. We enjoyed chatting with them for a while, and after eating the last of our snacks, we pushed on for the last section of the day.
It was very difficult hiking. That’s what I’ll say about that section. It was hot, there was some brush but nothing to hide behind, and every 30 minutes or so there would be a small amount of shade you could barely crouch while you drank from your hot water bottle. The trail meandered up and down, tricking us into thinking we were finally leaving the mountains as we passed down into a valley, only to take us back up again. My eyes watered constantly, a mixture of sweat, sunscreen, and wind blasting them even with my sunglasses on. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we exited the hills and had a long, straight dirt road to follow before reaching a highway, and right across that highway was our little oasis in the desert.
Hikertown is a quirky place. There is a house, lots of little gazebo shade areas, and a bunch of little western-themed buildings with beds in them and nothing else, where people could sleep. Unfortunately by the time we got there (1:30 or so, yes we did about 20 miles by then) all the beds were booked so we had to pitch our tent in the open field behind the property. The only person who managed to get a room was Stealth.
The owners of the place had water tanks full of ice and cucumbers on the porch, and after setting up our tent, we drank water and then got in line to take a shower. It was an outdoor one connected to a propane tank to warm the water. It felt great to get all the sweat and dirt off before rinsing my clothes as well. I changed into clean underwear and then just threw my shorts and shirt back on, wet, knowing they would dry quickly.
We waited for the store shuttle to arrive, which took us a few miles down the highway to a small convenience store to get more snacks and drinks for today, as well as some food for dinner. I ordered the double cheeseburger, and Singsong had the Carne Asada burrito. Her feet had been hurting a few days ago, but recently they have been doing really well! A little more sore today, but that makes a lot of sense given we have done 3 20-mile days in a row.
We ate our fill and drank a Gatorade and iced tea, and chatted with hikers. Some we had seen before, and some were new. Eventually, around 6:30, we caught the shuttle back to Hikertown and sat under a shaded awning outside of Stealth’s room. Our small group enjoyed the rest of the evening together before finally calling it a day around 8:30. We don’t have to get up early tomorrow, though, which will be a nice change. We plan to hang out all day tomorrow before heading out to hike the aqueduct section starting around 6:00 pm. It’s about 17 miles of very dry hiking and basically nothing but dirt out there. It can be very hot, so almost everyone hikes part of it at night. We will see how far we get.
