Mojave By Day — Adventures With Samson-The-Bear

On 6/6 we left Tehachapi and did 9.3 miles to an abandoned jeep road and slept at 6,002 feet. On 6/7 we did 26.7 miles to Jaw Bone Canyon and slept at 6,608 feet. On 6/8 we did 22.8 miles to an unpaved jeep trail and slept at 5,256 feet. On 6/9 we did 26 miles to Walker Pass and slept at 5,122 feet. On 6/10 we went into Onyx. CA and did 3 miles and slept at 6,167 feet. On 6/11 we did 18.5 miles to a campsite north of Spanish Needle Creek and slept at 6,680 feet. On 6/12 we did 20.7 miles to Mater Creek and slept at 5,846.

We spent an extra day in Hikertown to get to Tehachapi on a Monday in order to rent a car, since we thought we were going to have to drive around an active fire on the trail between Walker Pass and Kennedy Meadow. The fire was about 100 miles in front of us and had closed the trail with no walkable detours. To our relief, 300 firefighters, multiple aircraft and 4 days of fire fighting brought the Chimney Creek Campground fire under control with "only" 1,800 acres burned. The trail was relatively untouched and reopened quickly. We were thrilled we did not have to get creative about continuing our thru hike and could hike it without the need to flip flop. We joke that we took a zero in the worst possible place in the flat, hot Mojave at an old west film set with nothing to do, but since I am a cheap bastard, it made financial sense to zero in the desert and not in a town (SketchPad has yet to forgive me). A few days later we spent most of our time in Tehachapi in a German bakery where we consumed unfathomable amounts of pastries and washed it down with beers and coffee (yes at the same time). We also received a gear exchange in Tehachapi where we got each got new shoes. My feet have grown/swollen again. If you are keeping track of my shoe size (that would be bizarre if you were), I started the AT with an 8.5 shoe, at the end of it I was a 9.5 and it never shrank back between trails. I now have to wear a size 10 shoe on the PCT and think the next pair might have to be a 10.5! Along with new shoes, we had our bear canisters and micro spikes sent to us, which are needed in the Sierras. We had some logistical issues so we had to send our Sierra gear 150 miles before the actual Sierras and carry the extra gear through the desert, but that's okay. If we ever encounter the elusive desert bears; or if Hell (I mean the Mojave) ever does freeze over, we are set.

The section from Tehachapi to Walker pass is known to be one of the most brutal sections of trail. It does have the possibility of occasional shade so we don't have to night hike it, but there is a 42 mile stretch without water. We were going to have to be very very conscientious of our water consumption or we could get into trouble really fast. We left the last water source with 10 liters each (that's really low for 2 days in the Mojave, but the most we could carry because it's 22 lbs of water!). We were following our water consumption protocol when we ran into a water cache left for hikers by a trail angel at a jeep trail. We were ecstatic and cameled several liters of water. About another 15 miles down the trail was another water cache at another off road crossing. I should mention these water caches were not just a few gallons of water; with the number of hikers going through the area and the heat, each cache was over 200 gallons and replenished every other day! These caches are supplied by trail angels who volunteer their time and resources to help out hikers for no good reason. Imagine the work of bringing out 200 gallons of water into the desert every other day. It turned possibly the hardest section of trail into a much more enjoyable section as we were slowly experiencing a unique mixture of desert and mountain environments. You cannot rely on water caches since you can never verify if they will actually be there or they could run out of water and then you are screwed. In the end I drank over 21 liters of water over the 2 day so it would have been much different experience had it just been 10 liters.

When we got to Walker Pass we were greeted by so many trail Angels! Meadow Ed was there cooking his famous ratatouille for the hikers. I have never seen the movie Wild, but Meadow Ed is featured in the movie as the one who shakes down Cheryl Strayed's pack at Kennedy Meadows. He complained that his character was not performed by Brad Pitt. He has been doing trail angel work for over 20 years. It happened to be his birthday and Yogi came by with cakes for him and all of the hikers. Most of you probably don't know who Yogi is, but she literally wrote the book on how to thru hike the PCT. It's the guide book we all read before taking off, and you usually hear at least once or twice a day "according to Yogi we should...". Besides Meadow Ed and Yogi, Copper Tone was there too. Copper Tone got his name since he has no tan lines (use your imagination of why...). Copper Tone follows the herd of hikers in his homemade RV and makes root beer floats at trail crossings for the hikers (I cannot make this stuff up, even if I tried).

As we leave the desert we are also leaving behind the Joshua trees. These unique and fragile trees have provided rare shade and wind cover in the desert. They look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book and can grow in clusters, or by themselves, staight or twisted and be short or tall. The joshua tree was sometimes the only visible thing on the desert floor or barren mountain. The joshua trees are definetley a symbol of our southern journey. As we move north they are becoming more scarce symbolizing a new chapter in our hike.