So today is a pretty big milestone for me. I have 96 days set aside for this trip, so at the end of today I have officially completed a third of my time out here. Wow, it flies by. Sadly, it looks like I’ve been way off pace, and I’m averaging much closer to 19 or 20 miles a day instead of the 25-28 I was hoping for. Part of that was the fact that I didn’t really understand zero days and nero days, and how hard it can be to quickly get in and out of a town. But honestly, up to this point there are very few things I would change, and I’ve been thrilled with everything I’ve experienced so far.
This morning I spent a few final miles in the wind farm before finally getting through to the other side. I think these are now the Piute Mountains (or Hills), and its neat to see all the different ranges that we’ve crossed. Because I slept in today I expected to have been passed by some people, but the shoe prints in the dirt indicated otherwise. I was still seeing the same sets of prints from the day before, so I packed up and got going, anxious to try to catch Positive ID and Noah. Overnight I became accustomed to the noise from the windfarm, and I hardly noticed it as I passed dozens more turbines.
Today turned out to be relatively unremarkable, although I do have a few memorable instances. Around noon I came across a crew setting up a new weather monitoring station, and the pole and guylines were lying across the trail. I talked to this group for a little while, and its funny how reactions always fall into the same categories of “You’re crazy” or “That’s awesome”. I enjoy talking about my trail experience so far, and its always fun letting people know about this amazing opportunity in their backyard. I had lunch shortly thereafter down the trail, and realized I could’ve asked those guys for a bit of water as I was probably a touch short. Oh well, time to ration a little bit, plus it wasn’t too hot, and the terrain would be pretty forgiving for the rest of the day. In retrospect, I messed this one up due to poor planning last night. I had an 18 mile dry stretch, and took my standard 3 miles to a liter. I didn’t account for two meals w/o hitting water, plus my later start meant I didn’t get to hike in the morning cold. Not a huge problem, and I carried on without undue concern. One of my landmarks today was a pass, but I didn’t pay much attention to the contour lines around it. Clearly, a pass should be a high point on the trail, as you go between two peaks, right? Wrong - the trail usually sticks to the ridges, so when we’re hitting passes like this, we actually descend to the pass, then climb out of it. This totally threw me off, and for miles I kept looking for signs of this pass. I started to grow concerned about my water situation, as the pass was 5 miles from water, and I was starting to work down to my last liter. Finally, I came to a dirt road, and upon checking my map, realized my mistake, and was very, very thankful I was closer than expected. Navigation out here can be a funny thing. I’ve taken to using a 2mph estimate for my walking speed, and then based on time, I get a pretty good idea of where I should be. If I want to be more precise, I use that as a starting point, and then look on the map for familiar features in that area. This is much better than my earlier method of simply scanning the map for things I thought I had already passed. The reason is simple - your brain is optimistic; soon that puddle you passed turns into the lake at mile 594, that 100 foot climb turns into the 800 foot climb at mile 596, and suddenly you start thinking you’re 5 miles ahead of where you actually are. Its an easy trap to fall into, and using a conservative pace as a starting point helps reign that in a little bit.
Somewhere along this roadwalk I crossed mile 600. Because it was on a road, I don’t think this one was marked out on the trail, or at least I didn’t notice it. For the first time since leaving Tehachapi, I ran into another hiker on this section of road. Tara was out on her first backpacking trip, from Tehachapi to Walker Pass, but sadly she was struggling with foot problems and she was running behind schedule. I gave her some encouragement, and said that it does all get better. To myself I thought about the fact that she picked an absolutely punishing, hot and dry section for her first trip, and I really hoped she would enjoy it and not become turned off to backpacking due to her choice of a trip. The roadwalk continued for another mile or so, then turned off to a very nice spring. I chilled out and make dinner, drank my fill, and after over an hour, took off to find camp. Tara hadn’t made it up to the spring yet, so I hoped that she didn’t miss the turn from the road back to the trail. She was probably still dealing with her feet, or stopped to make dinner before ending her night at the spring, at least, that’s what I was hoping to myself.
After dinner I swapped into the boots, to start readjusting my feet to them again. I made about three miles, felt great, and although I probably could have kept going, I had a perfect campsite, and a quick glance at the map showed poor prospects for the next 3 miles. Drop pack. Lay out ground sheet, pad, and sleeping bag. Drift away to sleep, staring up into a sky full of stars.
Miles Today: 20
Trip Mileage: 605
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