Day 40
Start: 549 campsite
Finish: Tehachapi, CA
Daily Mileage: 17.5
PCT Mile: 566.5
There were patches of flowers as we went, but not nearly as much or as large as yesterday. We descended quickly and soon came to another enormous wind farm. There were a multitude of sizes of turbines covering the entire area, way more than I’ve ever seen in a single place in my life. The area was windy too, with the wind funneling between mountains in the pass that we were headed towards.
We reached a trailhead and took an extended break in the shade to regroup for the rest of the day. Jana got a ride into town at the first of two roads that lead towards Tehachapi, but Cookie Monster and I wanted to continue to the second road crossing since we wanted to get that stretch of trail behind us since it is dry and easier to cover with little water and our residual food from our last resupply rather than a brand new resupply and full water loadout for the dry stretch of trail ahead.
We transited a few more miles through the wind farm across easy rolling hills and descended to a road where a pickup truck was waiting with a tailgate full of food, and a grill going cooking up tacos. Cookie Monster and I had been planning on destroying a Chinese buffet in town, but we had enough of the glorious trail magic that we felt that we couldn’t take full advantage of it.
We met a second trail angel who was planning to do trail magic at the same spot, but since it was already taken, he agreed to take Cookie Monster and I into Tehachapi. Our ride was a van lifer, so there was only one seat, but Cookie Monster stuffed himself into a corner of the van and we made it work for a short ride to a pizza place for round 2 of trail food.
The pizza was bland but of great portion sizes which honestly matters more at this point. We are losing weight and need the raw calories.
From there, Barbara from the Hiker Hut picked us up and took us back to her retired cider press house to spend the night with marvelous facilities built for hikers. Full kitchen, and bath in our own building. There were several other hikers there we have been hiking around including Lou and Lanyard.
A good night catching up and embracing the pleasures of town, staying in an unheated metal shed.