May 18th, 2022 by Jon
We woke after another windy night, although it wasn’t quite as bad as the last 2 nights. Today was a town day, and we couldn’t wait to get a shower and a bed and out of the wind entirely. We packed up a little later than we usually do just because we are headed into town so soon, so we enjoyed an extra 45 minutes of rest. One thing I didn’t mention yesterday was that while Singsong was blowing up her sleeping pad, a gust of wind knocked it into some sharp plants and popped a hole in it. We tried patching it, but the hole is so large that the pad is pretty much a goner already. We ordered a new one from REI and are getting it shipped to the post office in Tehatchapi. We made a sleeping space with some things we already had, and Songsing slept on it for a few hours before we switched partway through the night. Thankfully, we should only have to do the one night of discomfort.
We packed up and headed back out into the wind to finish up the last section. We followed a long ridge that was made up of smaller and smaller hills the entire way down to the highway. As we worked our way down, we had views of more windmills. The wind farms seem endless in this section, and with the wind blasting us in the face the whole time, we get why they exist. The trail itself stayed on the same side of a ridge and we had the same view for the entire hike. Eventually, we got to the bottom, where there was a dried-out creek bed and plenty of campsites. We knew of several hikers who arrived last night and planned to hitchhike this morning.
We walked along the creek for a short while and came to a picnic table with a number of trail angels’ phone numbers listed who offered rides. We took a photo in case we couldn’t get a hitch after a few minutes when we got to the road. We continued on, arrived at the road, and waited for a few minutes. There was already a group of 4 hikers who got there before us and we tried to step back a little bit so it wouldn’t look so overwhelming for a passing car. Eventually, a truck came by that could take them, and we were left. A car stopped and it was another hiker that we recognized from Hikertown! She was taking some time off trail due to an injury and was doing a little trail magic before heading up to Oregon for the week. Thanks, WhiskeyMama!
She took us into town, and we were dropped off at a local breakfast spot, where I ordered a milkshake and an omelette. It was absolutely glorious. Singsong had the carnitas skillet plate, which was also very good. We had breakfast with Stealth, Spigot, and Classic and enjoyed sitting there for a long time. After breakfast, we walked over to the local laundromat to get that taken care of before check-in. We had heard from other hikers that the hotel would not allow early check-ins at all. Thankfully, we could get other chores done in the meantime. We sat there, some of us literally wrapped in our tent so we could wash everything, before heading over to the local coffee shop. We sat and had an actual latte instead of instant coffee before finally heading over to the hotel for check-in.
When we got to the hotel, there was a line of 10 people, and every single person in line was a PCT hiker. We recognized almost everyone. We waited for our turn, got into our room, and then just chilled and watched TV the rest of the afternoon. We had an amazing sushi dinner at the local sushi spot, and then hung out together in Wilco and Rune’s room with a bunch of hikers before calling it a night.
Tomorrow we will grab our things from the post office and resupply our food and otherwise take it easy and enjoy our zero day.
