Brenda dropped us off at the Overpass where we had finished the section before our Zero Days in Tehachapi.

With heavy packs, food for 5 days and 3 liters of water we started waddling (it really feels like waddling to me) and surprise: the first few miles of this section is part of the movie ”Wild”. Cheryl Strayed had set out on her 1000 mile journey from Mojave exactly on that spot and I bet that woman had waddled here, too, when she walked along that busy highway.

We must have climbed the first hill in the heat of the day, great planning from our side here. It was a hard climb not because the track was hard but the packweight slowed us down while we puffed past beautiful Joshua Trees and baron land.

And then the scenery changed into pine trees, alpiny scrubs, heathers and green meadows – and the weather changed as well from sunny to overcast and nope, we didn’t make it to our planned destination that day. Tired, we set camp, cooked dinner, listened to wind gusts and fell asleep.

Woke the next morning to rain. The big unusual weather system over the Pacific had started to roll in. We all huddled under our 3 person tent while having breakfast and set out with rain jackets, umbrella, and Tyvek rain-fashion.

Oh so cold with all the wind gusts and low clouds, alien landscapes in the mist and the creepy sound of wind turbines hidden in the clouds, only a few meters away from us.

When the rain cleared we had done 15 miles, and the next hill to climb was covered in a thick dark cloud in front of us. Wise decision, we stopped early in a beautiful lush forest sheltered from the wind, dried tent and tarp and warmed up with food and naps. Yet again we hadn’t reached our must-do-mileage. Oops.

FREEZING. The wind was sharp as a knife on the skin in the morning the next day. As we climbed back on over 6400 feet we passed frozen landscape. The leaves of trees and bushes were frozen, water drops had stopped dripping and hung like little tears on the bushes. Grass was white and we walked through forests. Spooky, but so pretty, and man…so cold. Again we were freezing in the Mojave Desert.

It must have been the prettiest section (for me) so far on the PCT when the weather cleared and we descended into a bowl like, sourrounded by hills, valley, definitely bear country, random rock formations, a clear stream, green plants and Squirrel Galore for our entertainment.

Today we had to do the miles so we ended up walking just under 25 miles (ca.40ks), descended back into a valley, found a huge water cache and bottled up, had dinner and walked the last 2 miles to a sheltered campsite and ‘tent city’. Everybody else tried to hide from the howling wind at the same place. No snoring in the night though.

I was starving during the night, but we were behind schedule and this is when I realise I am food anxious. Counting through the food that’s left I got even hungrier. ‘Oh, I would so eat that big pizza now…or ice cream..or yoghurt…hmm pancakes!’ If only….

Lucky day! ‘The trail provided’. The sun was out, short day planned due to a big climb the day after, passedthe 1000ks mark, it was a Saturday, and 2 groups of trail angels had accidentally picked the same spot and day to do trail magic. And here it was: pancakes, salad, fruit, veggies, donuts, water, sodas, ooooh it was heaven and ooooh I felt so so sick after eating or binge-eating for hours. Lesson learned. Promised!

Back to 7000 feet to climb up to, howling wind, freezing faces, frozen hair, spring weather, snow flakes, blue sky, then clouds, then low cloud and snow flakes again. Pretty! We found shelter in rustic McIver’s cabin (no not up to DOC standards!), had lunch and continued the final stretch down to Walker Pass. By the time we got to the road we were back in thicker snow flakes and thick low cloud and freezing temperatures. I tell you – public toilets are so so so cosy and warm, and dry, and oh so yummy when the weather is shite. 😉

We managed to get a lift down the hills, to civilisation, to the flat desert, got picked up by Laura, a local trail angel from Ridgecrest, just before the next rain. Got spoiled with real towels, hot showers, dinner and a bed. Awesome!

In the previous 46 days we had only 3 zero days – that’s basically 1 day off every 2 weeks. Yep, we’d had half days, walked the final 10-15 kms into town to resupply and leave again or left after resupply and lunch to get back onto the trail. That’s life on the trail. As I’d mentioned in my last post, the local PCT trail coordinator had given us a lift in Tehachapi and hooked us up with Brenda who was taking a wee break from Trail Angeling. It turned out we would stay 3 nights at Brenda’s and what a lovely time we had.

We “Slack-packed” a 13km section of the trail on our first day. Another day of Wind turbines, Brenda dropped us at one trail head and drove to the other. She then walked in our direction and joined us for a lunch break just past halfway. We ended our journey by taking Brenda out for a late lunch at a German Cafe. A late dinner and then movie night on the big screen in the theatre seats. Late to bed but a wonderful day.

The next day was our proper zero day, up late, popped into town to go shopping and bought some new socks. I even managed to have a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. After dinner the day was completed with another movie night – “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” – to help Grant with his Kiwi education. A late night, not to worry, we’d decided on a 2nd zero given the weather forecast for tomorrow was awful.

So, zero day number two. Another sleep in, slow breakfast and no frantic packing. Into town again, this time to resupply and buy a postcard for Mum. Returning home, I mowed the lawns out the front of the house while Grant weed eated everything else. Anna had cleaned the upstairs bathroom from top to bottom and had totally cleaned up the kitchen. Brenda has had up to 20 hikers staying per night and works night shift so any help around the place is always welcome. Dinner, a bit of packing and an early night – tomorrow starts a new 5 day section of the trail across a mountainous area.

Up extra early, could already hear the first few rain drops on the roof – thank goodness we weren’t hearing them from our tent. Coffee, Bacon, Eggs and Hashbrowns cooked up in the kitchen. Left at 7:00am armed with our umbrellas, Grant had his ground sheet fashioned into a poncho.

Up the road and next to the uncovered Aqueduct eventually joining up with the LA covered Aqueduct. Bit slippery in the rain but we managed. This section amongst hikers is infamous for being super hot, long and dry – many night hike it. Lucky us then, cool, wet and very scenic walking through the Joshua Tree forests.

Rain stopped before lunch time, we’d covered 21kms by noon. By now we were in the middle of gigantic wind turbines, thousands of them, big and small. Eventually we did have to gain some altitude and arrived at our canyon campsite at 5:00pm. 38kms in 10 hours including a lunch break was a very descent day – also a new record for us. Nice to pitch the tent and eat in the dry. We could see it still raining down on the plains. The Mojave crossing was complete and nothing like the hype we had read before.

Rained overnight but not much. Our only water source was very silted so we had to be careful with our water. Bacon and Eggs on wraps for breakfast. Huge zigzags and sidles were taxing given my lack of water, just as I ran out we reached a trail angel site, water, fresh fruit, biscuits and cakes – wonderful!

Shame about the dickheads on their motorbikes racing around on and off the PCT track. Met Jim on our way to the main road, he’s the local PCT coordinator doing a track inspection. Although living in the opposite direction, he gave us a lift in to Tehachapi and arranged for us to stay at a Trail Angels place where he dropped us off. Thanks Jim!

Our trail angel had until recently hosted up to 20 hikers per night – our trail angel (Brenda) had taken a few days off trail angel’ing to run a couple of CPR courses and complete her last Masters paper – hence empty house for the 3 of us. Shopping, shower, dinner, updates on my phone then a relatively early night as I was bit tired, 65kms hiked in two days can have that effect on you.