Day 25 | Mile 503.0 - 535.0

Woke up to a guy packing up at 5. He hiked out at 5:45. Impressive. It was very foggy. I could see fog moving through the campsite.

I was pretty hungry, so I sat up to make oatmeal. Crumbled a little perfect bar in there. So good!

I was the last to leave at 6:20-ish. I swear, I need at least an hour of awake morning time in the quilt.

The fog was so cool and mysterious. The visibility was maybe 20 ft.

There was water at 2 miles and I stopped and took my pack off to to fill up. Missed the cistern by oh, 0.4 mile. Lucky ran into someone at that campground who told me the cistern is really close to the trail. I backtracked.

Stopped to listen for human noise because I figured a water source would have a bunch of humans around. I couldn’t hear anything. But because I was very still, this skunk-looking thing didn’t notice me and ran right up to me. Maybe 4 feet away from me, it finally realized I was a threat. It stopped and started intimidating me. This little cat-size thing with giant tail. I could’ve punted it so hard. It started kicking up dirt with its paws, and fluffing the tail even bigger. I was scared it would spray or claw me. I just said “what the fuck” loudly and it ran away. Phew.

Finally found the water after trekking back up to the trail. It was very hard to get out of this shallow cistern.

 

The next section was really annoying series of pointless up and downs. I listened to Jessie’s desert playlist.

I got service just before Hiker Town. Radar texted explaining the shuttle situation. There’s a store shuttle every hour. He had already left to go to the store.

Got in Hiker town and drank a bunch of water. Laid out my sleeping bag to dry.

Took the next shuttle to get some tacos. I already have all the food I need to Tehachapi. But it’s nice to have a real lunch sometimes. I paid for 4 tacos and got 5. They were pretty good. Bought and ate a tub of ice cream.

Radar and I decided to leave at 2:30, and nap until then. Napping is amazing. I aired out my feet.

The next 17 miles you walk along the LA aqueduct. It’s a famous section of the PCT. It was pretty cool and not how I imagined it at all. It's a much shorter section than what I was imagining.

I was feeling ok the first hour or so. Then I started feeling really nauseated and sick. I was getting cold sweats and I thought I was going to barf all that ice cream back. Luckily, I felt better after a while. No puking necessary.

Done hiking at 8. I was ahead of radar by 30 minutes or so. I stopped and started making dinner right away. Ramen with salmon.

Camping in the middle of a wind farm! It’s a good location for it because it’s super windy. I’m somewhat protected by bushes over here.

Radar rolled in as I was already eating. Don’t know if he didn’t see me or if he’s mad at me for some reason, but we are not camping together today. Probably the former. :)

31 miles to Tehachapi tomorrow!