Day 46- June 4th

We woke up today on the concrete slab in just our sleeping bags and pads. Cowboy camping had been a success!! Unfortunately, Claire didn't get very much sleep and was extremely tired at the get-go.

We tried to beat out the sun and do the 5.77 to the Cottonwood Creek bridge. We did make it to the bridge with no real creek, but we didn't beat the sun! We got there pretty early, (at 10:45am) but it was already 90 degrees by 10!

We arrived at the bridge to about 12 other hikers sleeping in the shade. Most of them had walked all night! We set down and tried to sleep ourselves. The bridge was high overhead so the shadow that the sun created moved quickly and changed dramatically through the day. It seemed that every 20 minutes, whoever was closest to the sunny edge had to move towards the newly shaded side. It was like a huge game of leap frog all day. 

This was by far the hottest day I've ever been outside on in my life! There was a reason why we were all under that bridge. Luckily there was a little water spigot a few hundred yards away. When walking over to the previous water source, I'd feel myself burning up the second I left the shade! The high of the day was definitely over 100 degrees. Even under the shade that the bridge provided, I was sticky and overheating all day.

The bridge is for a dirt road out in the middle of nowhere, that accesses the maintenance roads for the aqueduct. I figure the only time anyone actually drives out there is when something is broken. That's why I was so surprised when I heard honking far off in the distance as I was about to drift off to sleep.

About a minute later, we heard from above us near the bridge, "Cold drinks and pizza!" Suddenly all the hikers were up and scrambling up the steep spur trails to the overhead bridge. 

It was Terri Anderson from Casa de Luna! magic!! She had brought the van over backcountry dirt roads, an hour from her house, just to see some familiar faces and to make all of our days!!

After having a soda, couple pieces of pizza and some "Tiger's Blood" shaved ice, (cherry and orange flavored-in case you are unfamiliar like me), it was bedtime! We thanked Terri again and headed back down under the bridge. It was a little after 5pm, and we were planning on leaving by 6 or 7pm.

When everyone had gone up to the trail magic, a big snake had snuck into the shaded area near the bridge to try and reclaim it's evening home. It wasn't a rattler and it wasn't aggressive. However as you can imagine I couldn't shut my eyes to sleep until it had safely slithered away from the area. I got about 1 hour of sleep and then it was time to  leave again! We left at about 8pm, a little later than we thought.

"Exo Six Toes" hiked out with us. This guy has an external frame pack (one of only two I've seen out here) and only has 6 toenails left due to the other 4 falling off because of his boots and/or vigorous walking. Cool guy.

Exo and I and Claire took off into the wind. We caught a pretty sunset amongst huge wind turbines and even came across a giant pen of sheep! 

After night fell we got the headlamps out. Things sure look creepier at night than in the day! We saw a huge assortment of mice and bugs and spiders and all kinds of things. 

Soon the hike turned for the worst: uphill. We were planning on walking all night, but none of us had much sleep. Exo's pack was nearly 60 pounds! So he stopped 5 miles up just before the extreme uphill. 

Claire and I pushed on up the crappy, windy, dusty slope, and then descended into Tylerhouse creek by 11pm. This was only 6.7 miles from the bridge, but we had to stop and get some sleep.. And this was the last water for over 24 miles!

We found a big tree with a flat spot under it and set up shop. The winds were strong but the tree kept us sheltered. We've had a long tiring couple of days.

Night hiking has its challenges for sure. Sleeping during the hot day is no easy task. Claire and I have only gotten about 10 or 11 hours of sleep in the last 3 days combined! We only made 12.47 miles because we sat around all day waiting for the heat while trying to sleep. We were so tired when we left the bridge and the conditions were so bad tonight that we didn't get very far.

Tomorrow we'll try to go for just under 17 miles (to the road into Tehachapi). We will sleep in tomorrow instead of leaving at 5 or 6. Even if it's super hot, some good rest is the most important thing right now.

-Thanks for reading!