May 20th, 2022 by Jon
We woke to the sound of wind, but thankfully, we camped in a nice, protected spot last night, so it really didn’t hit our tent at all. Singsong said the foam pad actually felt pretty comfortable last night, so we’re feeling less worried that it will be a miserable stretch until Kennedy Meadows for her. I woke up 15 minutes before the alarm went off at 6:00 and was pleasantly surprised by how little dust had blown into our tent. Singsong had used rocks and her backpack to block the wind blowing more from her side, and I had done the same with my pack. We ate breakfast in the tent to stay out of the wind and then packed up and headed out.
We walked by the spring we camped at and marveled at the number of frogs in it. I’m really glad we didn’t have to pull water directly from the pool; it would have made for some funky-tasting water. The trail was covered in a nice number of scrubby trees this morning, and we had an easy, mostly downhill walk to enter a valley that we had crossed into last night, right before camp. The windmills have a low humming sound and you can hear the thump of each blade as it swings. It’s a mixture of interesting and annoying to listen to all day. But today we are finally leaving the windmills behind after 4 days of hiking through them! What joy! We got to the bottom of the valley after 4 miles and marveled at the flat protected spots among the trees. We took a break there, had a snack, and got some rest. We’ve been enjoying taking quick breaks this stretch to get out of the wind more frequently. We find it’s needed to keep our sanity.
Feeling somewhat better, we walked up a small hill and hiked around a mountain to realize that we were off the map. Apparently, there is an old detour from a closure a few years ago, and it’s not clear which route you are supposed to take now. Pretty much everyone we talked to ended up taking it because it was more traveled, which added a mile or a mile and a half of trail. Oh well. We hiked along one last ridge for a while before coming to a metal gate signifying the end of the wind farm. We would continue to see them in the distance, but we would no longer hike so close to them. From there, we hiked up and over a hill and down into a wide valley. There were tons of massive oak trees, and we decided to take another break because we had gone about 6 or 7 miles. There was even an old cut log that we rolled 2 feet so we could use it to prop up our feet. It made for a very delightful lunch.
We sat there for about 45 minutes eating and talking just the two of us. We really love hiking with our group, but we also enjoy hiking alone. It’s nice to have some of both. Seabiscuit texted us to let us know that her knee is still recovering so she plans to get back on trail in a few days. She is going to try to meet us at Walker Pass, which is still 3 days away. We will be really glad to see her again. Rune, Stealth, Wilco, and Missile Toe are all about 9 miles behind us, but they plan to pull some longer days to get to Waler Pass the same day we do, so it will be a happy reunion.
After lunch, we started the more difficult part of the day. We basically had 2 mountains to climb up, over, and down, before one huge third climb up to Robin Bird Spring where we plan to camp tonight. The climbs were very tough because of how steep they were, but we enjoyed how big the trees are in this section. So far, it’s just been large pine trees for a short section when we are way up on top of a mountain. But we can tell a transition is happening because we saw way more trees today than anywhere else in the desert. The next two days will likely be a little bit drier as we head east and closer to the desert, but then we will turn north again and be back to this more lush environment. Yay for the subtle changes in terrain!
Both mountains we climbed had a lot of blown-down trees on the way back down them. It made for some interesting hiking, with us jumping over, hiking way around, and even climbing under huge tree limbs. I’m not sure if there were so many because of the wind or something else, but it was beautiful and green regardless. After we got on top of the 2nd mountain, we took a small break 4.5 miles from the spring to give us that last boost of energy to get there. We also each had a Snickers bar, which helped.
We climbed down the 2nd mountain, then walked along a dirt road for about a mile and a half to climb back up. There were a number of private properties and cabins tucked away in there, and we admired them from the trail. We got most of the way up and came across the 600-mile marker! It felt very cool to pass, and it’s hard to believe we have come so far. The next marker at 700 miles will also mark the end of the desert section, so we’re pretty excited that we are getting so close! We finished out the last bit of uphill before leaving the road and following the trail once more.
We meandered along the ledge of a gentle slope, admiring the valley below and marveling at all the trees, and I almost couldn’t believe how big some of them were. It’s such a change from what we have been seeing for the last few weeks. We climbed one last hill and then reached the turnoff for the spring. We walked down a small path and found a few hikers already there that we had seen intermittently since leaving the highway yesterday. We set down our packs in a nice flat spot and then grabbed our water stuff and headed to the spring. This spring was also piped, which makes collection easy. In most cases, to do this, the water runs down a hill on the surface and creates a small channel. Someone will take a 2-foot-long pipe, find a spot where the water falls off a ledge, and lay the pipe right in the channel. It helps create more of a spout and because it falls (in this case a few inches) it’s much easier to collect.
We filled water, made dinner, and hopped in our tent early to rest and recover. We’re hoping to do a bigger day tomorrow since there is a bit more downhill. I forgot to mention earlier, there is no wind this evening! It chilled out around 1 pm, and ever since then, it’s been breezy instead of blasting. A very welcome change.
