Day 39, 21.15

I didn’t sleep very good last night as the winds were whipping through and it was a very hot night. I kept waking up sweating really bad but was too lazy to get out of my sleeping bag. I checked my phone frequently and it seemed like 10pm, 12am, and 2am all took forever to arrive. I probably only slept a couple hours. When I checked and it was just before 5am, I got up.

I knew there was a big hill to climb and wanted to get it out of the way before the sun came in too hot. I thought it would’ve rained last night because of the thunder and dark skies above but it didn’t and everything was dry. It was a beatiful warm morning and the wind died down soon after I left camp.

At camp and the dirt road crossing

Early scenes 

We climbed up over 1600 for I’m the first 3.5 miles, and then had a very easy rest of the day! Again, “only” needing to go ~20 miles, AND getting an early start, led to a slower, more comfortable pace, and a good size siesta.

Today Julian and I leapfrogged with Keglegs all day. She’s the only one around us that started on the same day as me, except for Mougs (Chris). I didn’t meet her until Big Bear, but Julian had hiked with her a bit in the beginning of the trail. She happens to be doing the same resupply strategy as Julian and I, and we might group up for the High Sierra snow travel, as it’s ideal to go with more than just two people when you’re crossing icy passes and treacherous high waters as we might be experiencing. We’d also like to catch up to Joe Solo and Turbo Stash and head through with them as well!

There were so many wildflowers today,lots of purple and yellows! That mixed with an older burn area made for some beautiful scenery!

Lupine :)

My favorite of the day :)

When we were about 6 more miles from Walker Pass Campground where we had planned to camp, and the highway that leads to Lake Isabella, Julian was able to contact his brother Josh who had decided to come out and meet us for the night and the next day! It was such a great surprise! 

Because of the early start, it was only 2:45pm and we were nearing the campground! There was no service st the pass, so Julian, Keglegs and I decided to hitch into Lake Isabella to make it easier for Josh to meet us. We only had to wait ~15 minutes for a hitch. This is actually quite good as this is by far the hardest hitch of the hike so far!

We got dropped at Taco Bell and got down on a little horrible fast food before Josh and friends arrived from their 3 hour drive from LA.

Our ride! 

That’s Keglegs standing on the left of our ride: a 1986 VW vanagon. Josh had taken the old gyal, (running on hopes and dreams), almost 200 miles to come hang out! They had to stop a couple times to let it cool off and not explode, haha. On top of that, we off-roaded down a BLM land road to get to some free camping along the Kern River for the night.

Off-roading!

Paul, Daniel, Julian, with brother Josh

Josh and his friends, the twins, Paul and Daniel are so cool! They brought a bunch of food and beers, and we hung out until late in the night, swapping stories of our childhoods and hometowns, and just having great conversation! I set up my tent in a nice flat spot and can hear the river, (it’s almost too loud), very close by. It’s been a late night, gotta hit the hay!

Thanks for reading!!