A lot of people feel nervous about the Mojave section, and why shouldn't they? It's a desert; it doesn't like you just as much as you don't like it. That's why we'd long decided to walk the lot in one night.
I was hoping to head out from Hiker Town at around five or six, unfortunately our ride didn't get us there until eight. But hikers can't be choosers. Hiker Town is an interesting little anomaly on the edge of the desert; apparently set up by one of the founders of the Hells Angels it looks like an old western film set and is actually mostly composed of old film props and memorabilia. It has a general store, gunsmith and a jail full of chickens. It's only recently become hiker friendly, I was told the last owner used the swear at hikers and refuse them water. Now it sells them beer for fifty cents and apple pie & ice cream for two bucks.
We have something to eat and talk to Emily who hiked out last night but came back with foot issues. She says it's horrible out there, even at night. Of the twenty people that left with her only two made it to the water cache in 19 miles, the rest got lost. This preempts us to use our gps, which was a good thing. After some goodbyes and thank yous to Achilles for driving us to Hiker Town we head out, and quickly find the trail to be less than responsive to our searching eyes. But we soon come to the open section of the California Aqueduct and head off along it.
With a little more wandering about we find the section where the trail branches off and follows a piped section of the aqueduct heading North. It's a good section so far; flat, cool hell you could even say we were enjoying it more than most other desert parts of the trail! Then Rebecca jumps and bursts out in a rushed breath 'fuck I thought that was a mountain lion'. It turned out to be a coyote, quite a big one too, I'd say about a medium to large sized dog. It circled around behind us, watching, we kept our head lamps on it trying to discourage any closer inspection of our cookie laden packs. Rebecca's frown seemed to do the trick.
We met up with Vagazzle and Coyote Jodie soon after and sat eating cookies, they kindly shared a nutella tortilla. Paul catches up and we set off again, soon after Rebecca sees this huge scorpion, it must have been 10cm long! But she thinks she saw Jodie stand on it so it wasn't moving very fast, it was still alive but it didn't look in the best shape, but damn was he big and ugly.
It was soon after this point that I started feeling a little under the weather, I asked Rebecca and she felt similar so we put it down to those damn Granda's cookies. 99c for 400 calories though. So we continued walking with Paul telling stories and intermittently cursing Grandma and her choice to ever take up baking. I was soon to find out that I was a little worse off the Rebecca, I must of picked something up staying with all those other filthy hikers in Agua Dulce because I just couldn't hold anything down. So We were several miles into the desert with limited darkness and water left, and I was losing water fast. A bit concerning. I'm just glad a scorpion didn't take a fancy to me when I was squatting in the scrub.
We hike on, using the gps constatntly, taking small breaks where we were harassed by little kangaroo mice for food in exchange for disease. I know a con when I see one. Finally after not a small number of special stops to relive myself, we make it to the Cottonwood Creek bridge water cache just before 5am. Everyone seems to be resting there, but Rebecca and I don't want to be caught in the desert sun, and I figure there must be tree cover in Tylerhorse Canyon as it has a small creek. We take a short break at which I fall asleep, Rebecca wakes me after 15 minutes and we set off again leaving Paul and the rest to sleep under the thin aqueduct bridge. The sun was starting to come up and we needed to make another 6.5 miles before it became unbearable. It became too hot at about 6-6:30, and we were running low on water, and the trail began the ascent into the Tehachapi mountains. It was the three things we least wanted.
Dehydration set in pretty quick, and we hadn't slept so we were extra exhausted. I just hope that Tylerhorse Canyon has water, we needed it to have water. If it didn't it could have easily turned into an emergency situation with a helicopter ride and hospital food involved. After what seemed like an age trudging through a desert wind farm we come to a valley with a few scattered trees, shaded from the early morning sun by the east wall of the valley. Instead of elation a rising sense of dread filled me as we descended to the valley floor. I couldn't hear any running water.
Damn polarised glasses, I took them off and saw a gentle flow in the bottom of the creek. Shade, water and finally some rest. We stayed for twelve hours in the shade of a big bristly tree full of little lizards. There were lots of ants. Paul, Lorax, Coyote Jodie and Vagazzle caught up at some point (we were asleep) and we shared horror stories of the heat, talked about how dangerous dehydration was. You know, small talk about the weather.
About 7:30pm we set out and night hiked up a couple of thousand feet to a water cache full of kangaroo mice, it was pitch black. I think it's a new moon, but Rebecca was getting concerned about animals as she thought she could see animal tracks but not much else. Anything outside our small circle of light wasn't even a shadow, it was just black. In retrospect it was well founded concern because someone saw a bear up there and 789 had a 2 hour stand off with a mountain lion, luckily it was with a few other hikers. She said it disappeared for a bit then she turned and spotted it above her crouching on a rock. Shit she's lucky. I'm really regretting leaving my knife at the ranger station before Agua Dulce.
That section of trail was so diverted from fallen burnt out trees it was worse than a maze, and at night it was just no fun so we ended up camping only 8 miles in. We said we'd get up at 4 am, it was more like six before we moved. At least it was downhill to the road to Tehachapi. As we intended to night hike to the road we didn't take enough water, again. But we made it to the road, met another hiker with a hitching sign and only had to wait 20 mins for a ride!
First think we get in Tehachapi is a milk shake, then we head to The Best Western where most hikers are staying. We source a room staying with 6 other hikers for only 20 bucks and proceed to eat and plan a trip to the cinema for four dollars! Just had a monster breakfast and prepping our resupply for some of the Sierras. Also getting ready for more night hiking tonight. Now I'd love to write more but you'd get sick of it and the iPad has started having some sort of fit.
I was hoping to head out from Hiker Town at around five or six, unfortunately our ride didn't get us there until eight. But hikers can't be choosers. Hiker Town is an interesting little anomaly on the edge of the desert; apparently set up by one of the founders of the Hells Angels it looks like an old western film set and is actually mostly composed of old film props and memorabilia. It has a general store, gunsmith and a jail full of chickens. It's only recently become hiker friendly, I was told the last owner used the swear at hikers and refuse them water. Now it sells them beer for fifty cents and apple pie & ice cream for two bucks.
We have something to eat and talk to Emily who hiked out last night but came back with foot issues. She says it's horrible out there, even at night. Of the twenty people that left with her only two made it to the water cache in 19 miles, the rest got lost. This preempts us to use our gps, which was a good thing. After some goodbyes and thank yous to Achilles for driving us to Hiker Town we head out, and quickly find the trail to be less than responsive to our searching eyes. But we soon come to the open section of the California Aqueduct and head off along it.
With a little more wandering about we find the section where the trail branches off and follows a piped section of the aqueduct heading North. It's a good section so far; flat, cool hell you could even say we were enjoying it more than most other desert parts of the trail! Then Rebecca jumps and bursts out in a rushed breath 'fuck I thought that was a mountain lion'. It turned out to be a coyote, quite a big one too, I'd say about a medium to large sized dog. It circled around behind us, watching, we kept our head lamps on it trying to discourage any closer inspection of our cookie laden packs. Rebecca's frown seemed to do the trick.
We met up with Vagazzle and Coyote Jodie soon after and sat eating cookies, they kindly shared a nutella tortilla. Paul catches up and we set off again, soon after Rebecca sees this huge scorpion, it must have been 10cm long! But she thinks she saw Jodie stand on it so it wasn't moving very fast, it was still alive but it didn't look in the best shape, but damn was he big and ugly.
It was soon after this point that I started feeling a little under the weather, I asked Rebecca and she felt similar so we put it down to those damn Granda's cookies. 99c for 400 calories though. So we continued walking with Paul telling stories and intermittently cursing Grandma and her choice to ever take up baking. I was soon to find out that I was a little worse off the Rebecca, I must of picked something up staying with all those other filthy hikers in Agua Dulce because I just couldn't hold anything down. So We were several miles into the desert with limited darkness and water left, and I was losing water fast. A bit concerning. I'm just glad a scorpion didn't take a fancy to me when I was squatting in the scrub.
We hike on, using the gps constatntly, taking small breaks where we were harassed by little kangaroo mice for food in exchange for disease. I know a con when I see one. Finally after not a small number of special stops to relive myself, we make it to the Cottonwood Creek bridge water cache just before 5am. Everyone seems to be resting there, but Rebecca and I don't want to be caught in the desert sun, and I figure there must be tree cover in Tylerhorse Canyon as it has a small creek. We take a short break at which I fall asleep, Rebecca wakes me after 15 minutes and we set off again leaving Paul and the rest to sleep under the thin aqueduct bridge. The sun was starting to come up and we needed to make another 6.5 miles before it became unbearable. It became too hot at about 6-6:30, and we were running low on water, and the trail began the ascent into the Tehachapi mountains. It was the three things we least wanted.
Dehydration set in pretty quick, and we hadn't slept so we were extra exhausted. I just hope that Tylerhorse Canyon has water, we needed it to have water. If it didn't it could have easily turned into an emergency situation with a helicopter ride and hospital food involved. After what seemed like an age trudging through a desert wind farm we come to a valley with a few scattered trees, shaded from the early morning sun by the east wall of the valley. Instead of elation a rising sense of dread filled me as we descended to the valley floor. I couldn't hear any running water.
Damn polarised glasses, I took them off and saw a gentle flow in the bottom of the creek. Shade, water and finally some rest. We stayed for twelve hours in the shade of a big bristly tree full of little lizards. There were lots of ants. Paul, Lorax, Coyote Jodie and Vagazzle caught up at some point (we were asleep) and we shared horror stories of the heat, talked about how dangerous dehydration was. You know, small talk about the weather.
About 7:30pm we set out and night hiked up a couple of thousand feet to a water cache full of kangaroo mice, it was pitch black. I think it's a new moon, but Rebecca was getting concerned about animals as she thought she could see animal tracks but not much else. Anything outside our small circle of light wasn't even a shadow, it was just black. In retrospect it was well founded concern because someone saw a bear up there and 789 had a 2 hour stand off with a mountain lion, luckily it was with a few other hikers. She said it disappeared for a bit then she turned and spotted it above her crouching on a rock. Shit she's lucky. I'm really regretting leaving my knife at the ranger station before Agua Dulce.
That section of trail was so diverted from fallen burnt out trees it was worse than a maze, and at night it was just no fun so we ended up camping only 8 miles in. We said we'd get up at 4 am, it was more like six before we moved. At least it was downhill to the road to Tehachapi. As we intended to night hike to the road we didn't take enough water, again. But we made it to the road, met another hiker with a hitching sign and only had to wait 20 mins for a ride!
First think we get in Tehachapi is a milk shake, then we head to The Best Western where most hikers are staying. We source a room staying with 6 other hikers for only 20 bucks and proceed to eat and plan a trip to the cinema for four dollars! Just had a monster breakfast and prepping our resupply for some of the Sierras. Also getting ready for more night hiking tonight. Now I'd love to write more but you'd get sick of it and the iPad has started having some sort of fit.
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