Day 41 (14 June)

Miles 566.4 to 573.3. Tehachapi to Bushcamp.

Even though we had originally planned to leave Tehachapi in the morning, we changed our mind last night. We have the comfy hotel room until noon, our friends are still in town and we still have some blogging to do. Also we figured that it would not be possible to get a ride to the trailhead before dawn, and if we started hiking at like 7am it would soon be too hot for the next mountain on our agenda.

So we spend the morning enjoying another delicious breakfast followed by some more hours of blogging. We haven‘t written any new posts in a while and therefore have a lot to catch up on. It feels good now to be up to date again. :-)

There are a lot of other hikers hanging out in the hotel lobby, enjoying the last hours of an airconditioned room before leaving again. A tough section lies ahead of us. The Mojave desert in all its glory. Hot, shadeless, dry. Water is a big deal as there are hardly any flowing sources and we need to carry 11 liters with us. We also decided to try and get to Kennedy Meadows, the beginning of the Sierras, in one go which means a food carry for 7 days. Needless to say, our packs are heavy. We will see how it goes.

At 3.40pm we leave town with a bunch of other hikers. Wizard and Thibaud stay behind to rest some more and will leave later in the day. As they haven‘t done the last 8 miles due to hitching from the previous highway they will also have to start at a different position tonight.

At the trailhead we hide some gallons of water for Wizard and Co. as they will only reach this position tomorrow and due to the lack of water, we offered to put some water there for them. Then we start hiking. The first mile is right next to the highway, pretty straightforward, but boring. Soon we start the climb up the mountain. We are only doing 7 miles today to reach the mountain peak and have an easy start tomorrow. The views are very beautiful and the golden hour soon begins to put everything in a gorgeous light. When we arrive at the campsite we quickly set up our tent and cook dinner. It looks like we have the site to ourselves tonight. I realize when lying in my sleeping bag that the ground is uneven. Hopefully I won‘t roll down sidewards all night long. But for now I am comfortable enough and Dario seems comfortable too as he is already snoring next to me. ;-)