PCT 2023 - Day 37 - Tehachapi

The one with the mice, Ghost and a Thai meal with good friends.

📍 Location: MM 546.5 to Tehachapi

🥾 I actually walked: 17.2 miles (13.5 trail miles)
💰 Money: $263 for two hotel nights, $45 Thai restaurant, $74 in Walmart (huge store!).
⛑️ Health: The stretching exercises, pain relief gel and taking my time has worked on my achillies. It’s still sore on my right foot but no issues with my left. The pain in my shin is sporadic. I just make sure I rub them as part of my resting routine.

☀️ Weather: Hot, but with a gentle breeze.

🍲 Food: Breakfast bar and a hot hazelnut coffee, noodles with tuna for lunch and Thai meal for dinner. (Yum!).

💤 Sleep: I slept quite well in the tent last night. We camped on a ridge and the comments in FarOut (the app) said the site was incredible windy, but we were lucky. No wind for us last night and I had my doors open to enjoy the stars.

😃 People update: Tonight we had dinner with Amber, Harry and Sketch. It was great to catch up.

⚙️ Gear update - Early on I ditched the four smart water bottles and replaced with 2 x 1.5 litre bottles. My tent is looking a bit worn now and there are a few holes in the mesh of my pack. Everything is starting to look grubby and tired (including me!) 😂

THE LONG WINDED VERSION:-

🐭 5.10am - I hear a rustling from the palace of a tent next door. “Morning” I said. “Morning” reapplied Bloom. “Sorry if I woke you up last night” she said. “No? I didn’t hear a thing. Did you have a restless night?” I asked. “I’ll explain over coffee” she said. We spent the next 40 mins or so packing up and having breakfast. As we sit down to drink our coffee and watch the amazing sunrise Bloom explained what had happened last night. “You see the holes in the ground?” She says, pointing to he holes. “Yes, they are everywhere in the desert” I said. “Well, last night I discovered what lives in them! During the night I was bombarded by little desert mice who were popping up under my tent and trying to get inside”. She continued… “lesson learned, avoid those little holes if you can!”. Poor Bloom! She’s had lots of ping days recently and really needed a good nights sleep. Tonight we will be in a hotel room with a hot bath and clean sheets. Fingers crossed she sleeps well tonight.

🥾 619 am - And we are off! We have nearly three miles of climbing before the trail starts heading down to Tehachapi (our final destination). We have fresh legs this morning but the climb is still very challenging. 19 miles to do today. It’s going to be a long day!

⛰️ 630 am - Walking on the trail is quite humorous. Bloom and I are both over 50 and these mountains are challenging. We hear footsteps behind us and are constantly living over to let people pass. The youngsters on the trail look as if they are not even breaking a sweat! We stop to let a small tramily pass. Leading the group was the Austrian guy that we saw yesterday named Dominic. “Hi” I said, “thanks for letting us pass” he replied politely. “It’s gonna be a long day” I said “so any excuse for a break!” I laughed. “Not so long. There is a road junction at 13 miles today, rather than carrying on to the 19 mile marker. That’s where we are getting off. It’s called Willow Springs Road.” And with that, he and his small trail family of three waved us goodbye.

🙌 I looked at Bloom who knew exactly what I was thinking. “13 miles! Whoop! That’s made my day”. I said and did a Whoop! Into the air. I checked the app and sure enough there was an exit point at Willow Springs Road. Looking at the elevation, most of it was downhill as well. The good news gave us a real boost.

709 am - The reason Bloom has her trail name is because she is fascinated by flowers and takes photos of them as we go. It’s lovely to hear someone enthusiastic about the flowers and I’m learning new things all the time. She first points out the Loopins. I knew that one, or so I thought! “These are actually stinging Loopins are are native to California. They thrive in the mountains and particularly in burnt areas. As we climb higher I keep asking her names of flowers. She spots a Milk weed which has a cloudy white leaf, and the gorgeous Desert Mariposa Lily which pops up in a vibrant orange colour. I think they look like tiny roses 🌹 in the desert floor.

🪲 Bloom is also a lover of anything to do with nature. She spends a good few minutes rescuing a bee which is on the trail and she doesn’t want him to be trodden on. She then looks up the name of the big black beetles that stick their bums in the air and their heads in the sand. Apparently they are called Desert Stink Beetles. I’m enjoying walking with Bloom. She has a similar pace to me and is a fountain of knowledge on the trail. It’s good to see the trail through different eyes.

☂️ 7.47 am - As we reach the peak of the mountain (or nearly the peak) we spot a little oasis that has been created by someone with a sense of humour. Trail magic!! We have gallons of water, a hiker box, a big rubbish bin (Yey! We can get rid of our trash), chairs to sit down with parasols to sit under. There is a library box full of books and another cabinet called “pantry”. If yuh arrived here for a siesta in the middle of the day then this would be heaven. We are in the middle of nowhere, high up in the desert mountains and sitting in a chair with parasols creating shade. It’s all a bit surreal and I’m loving it!
Bloom and I rest here for about 20 mins before heading our packs onto our backs and hike on. Eight miles to go! We got this!

850 am - We feel like we are walking out of the desert now. The terrain becomes much more green and it’s great to see new things such as the amazing Joshua Trees. We still have sand but the tumbleweed has turned to green bushes and bracken.

⛅️ The weather is good. Just a nice cool breeze with wind turbines all around. The walking is easy and I’m really enjoying the trail today. It’s busy as well as people are passing us all day, and then we leapfrog them when they stop for a break.

930 am - We hear someone running behind us. As usual we pull over to let the person pass. A young man recognises Bloom and as he runs (yep, he’s running not walking!), he says “have you seen my trail family Bloom?” She shouts after him and says “yes, they are a bit in front of us”. And like that, he was gone. “His name is Wilbur (something to do with a pig), but I call him Ghost. She says with a smile. “Ghost?” I asked. She explained that you think he is in front of you and then he pops up behind you! It’s like he vanishes and then reappears. “It’s difficult to explain” she says.

Ten minutes later we hear someone else running behind us. It’s Wilbur/Ghost! He passes us again and just puts his hand in the air to say thanks for loving over. I’m super confused! He is fast and he passed us ages ago. I look at Bloom…. “Ghost” she says!!

🧘‍♀️ 10.47 am - Break time. I’m in my little chair and Bloom has a yoga mat to lie down on. It feels good to rest. A very tall lady called “Catch Up” (I actually thought her name was Ketchup but was corrected later) is sitting to our left. She’s playing Ed Sheeran and enjoying a cigarette. I hum along to Ed as we break for about 15 mins. Check Up leaves and we shortly follow.

🐴 12 noon - We are so close now! We are walking through the Wind Turbine farm and these things are huge and quite noisy. I then spit a big horse on the trail without an owner to be seen anywhere. Is it a wild horse? It just appeared from nowhere and starts galloping down the hill to say hello. My reaction is a bit different to Blooms. I stop in my tracks and hold up my poles to protect myself and Bloom is “ah, what a lovely horse “. I put bloom in the front because she doesn’t mind horses I prefer them behind a fence.

🏨 1.10pm - We arrive at Willow Springs Road and I feel the relief knowing I will be in a warm bed later tonight. We were lucky enough to secure a hitch with a trail angel called Lucky Lucy who dropped us right outside our hotel. Check in was not until 3pm but our rooms were ready! Result! Disco Daddy is here as well but he couldn’t check in so spent the last few hours in the German Bakery in town which apparently has the best bread he has ever tasted!!

Bath ✅
Laundry ✅
Gear explosion in my room ✅

🍺 Disco messaged me. He fancies Thai food tonight and we think that’s a great idea. We set off around 5.30pm in search of a popular restaurant called Thai Apchapi. On route we popped into a liquor store that had a Beer cave in the back with over 700 beers! It was freezing inside but the variety of beer was amazing. Disco loved it, and Bloom found a beer she liked called Fat Cats.

🍴 A guy from Canada called Brad joined us for a Thai meal. I indulged in a pork chow mien , and chicken satay. We all tried each others food as well. I particle like the steamed dumplings that Bloom was eating.

👍 To my delight, I had a text from Harry & Amber. They were in town as well and came to join us at the restaurant. Sketch was with them. It was so good to catch up with them and to hear their stories from the last few days. They are hiking out tomorrow so I’m not sure if I’ll see them again before I head home. Home… that’s close now. Just two more weeks left and 136 miles left to walk!

Thanks for listening to my rambles. It’s been a good day today.

Signing off.

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