Day 40 (13 June)

Miles 0. Tehachapi (Zero Day)

Another amazing sleep in! Speedy said goodbye to us and left early at 6 am. It's unlikely we will see him again soon as he will now do bigger mile days. We understand it as he has indeed been adapting our pace when he could have gone much further. But we will still miss him heaps! We sleep some more, then have another delicious go at the hotel's breakfast buffet. Wizard and also Thibaud, whom we haven't seen since Big Bear Lake, are scheduled to arrive later in the afternoon, so we have the whole day to ourselves. We spend some more time blogging, doing some e-banking and ordering some items (e.g. the mandatory bear canisters) to be shipped to Kennedy Meadows, the starting point of the Sierra Nevada. Then while I organize our packs, Dario goes out to get a new gas canister. It turns out he has to walk like 2.5 miles in total, which doesn't agree with him at all. Poor guy, having to walk on a zero day is such a no-go!

When Wizard and Thibaud arrive we head over to Thai-hachapi (finally!) and have an amazing Thai dinner. It is sooo good! We then head straight back to the hotel and jump into the hot tub once again. 

Dario and I feel really rested now and ready to leave Tehachapi tomorrow to do the final section of the Southern California desert. As amazing as the desert section was, we are really excited for the Sierras. We will most likely be doing much shorter mile days there because the terrain is quite challenging as we will be climbing approximately one mountain pass a day. We will no longer have to worry about carrying water, there will be plenty of water. Lakes, rivers, creeks, snow! It's gonna be so hard, but I feel that the desert has prepared us well. We are ready to take on the next challenge! However, the next 7-9 days will be quite challenging as well. the Mojave desert is just merciless, there is hardly any shade. But the next destination is Kennedy Meadows and for us and everyone else it's the biggest one so far. It will mean the end of a 702 mile hike through the desert and the beginning of the infamous und pristine Sierra Nevada.